A/N: Complete rewrite as of 5/25/18

Rhys Tuesti was brilliant. He was the kind of brilliant that had Rupert's head spinning, just barely keeping up with him as they discussed Grimoire's designs, picking out things that had only vaguely occurred to him, pointing out flaws that only a mechanic's keen eye could begin to detect. But he seemed to thrive on the proposed challenge, and once they got Grimoire on the phone he just let them talk.

The next day, he came in with pages of sketched out designs. They would need supplies, but it was possible. In theory, at least, and that was good enough for him.

It took a few weeks to get the materials in - time that Rhys used to refine his design further. Of course, even once they put it together, they still had to acquire the mako, and then there was the matter of waiting. Because they really had no idea how long it would take. They set up seven chambers, each to be "seeded" with part of a Restore materia.

And then, they waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Each of the chambers had a window in the side, but you really couldn't see through mako. They were going to have to open them to have any idea of what was going on. The first chamber was opened after a couple weeks, just to see if anything had happened from putting the mako under pressure. It was hard to say if anything had actually happened, admittedly, but they thought perhaps the shard was a little larger. A little rounder. It was enough to encourage them to keep trying.

The second chamber was opened after a full month, and there was a definite buildup started, low level crystallization edging around the shard and starting to build up, if a bit awkwardly. It wasn't quite rounding out yet. They agreed to open the third after another month had passed. In the end, it took eleven months to have a viable baby materia, about the size of a large marble. Tests showed that it was fully functional, however.

With the success of having created materia came the inevitable question of can we do it faster? Just how fast could you make a materia and still have it functioning? Clearly they were going to need many, many more tests before they would be able to say for sure. But it was a start.

While working with it, however, Rhys had noticed something odd. "It doesn't level."

"What?" Rupert glanced at him, puzzled. "You'd said you felt it level up."

"Bad wording," he admitted. "It levels, but… it didn't unlock any different spells. It's still a tier one materia, as far as the spells you're getting from it are concerned."

Rupert frowned, puzzled. "How can it level up without actually advancing?"

"Hell if I know." Rhys frowned. "It works, but that's it. Just a Cure."

Rupert hummed, tapping his fingers. "We'll try a level two materia. It may just freeze at the level you're starting with. We might be cloning materia, instead of making new ones."

"Now there's a thought." He nodded thoughtfully. "Alright, we'll test one that's been leveled before and see what we get."

It turned out, technically they were cloning materia. Rupert stood in the lab that they'd set up, eyeing the completed lineup of elemental materia with a grin. "It all works?"

"All of it," Rhys agreed. "It's just one level per materia, even if ya master it, but it's viable materia."

"What happens if you master it? Does it still spawn a baby?" Rupert asked.

"It does, but at the same level it is. And it feels a little different, to me. Not as responsive," Rhys said. "It's not terrible, but there's still a definite difference compared to natural materia."

"It's something people can adapt to," Rupert insisted. "Do you realize what we've done? We've revolutionized the materia industry."

"Bugenhagen doesn't like it," Rhys said. "Says it's unnatural."

"I never claimed it was natural - they're manufactured, that doesn't make them inherently bad. How could it be? People can have access to materia who might never have been able to get their hands on it. It's accessible now," Rupert said. "What we've done, Rhys, is going to change everything. Not just on the war front, but on domestic lines, too."

"Sometimes it helps, havin' a materia that's not gonna fluctuate strength on ya," Rhys admitted. "I did somethin' earlier I wanted to show ya."

"Oh really?" Rupert gestured for him to go ahead.

Rhys went back to his desk, getting a slim box out and flicking the back open. Inside was a smoothed materia shard, fit in where a battery should be. "It's a power source, so long as it's on your skin."

Rupert blinked slowly. "You… power that watch with materia?"

"I do." He grinned. "A shard of Bolt, level one. Conducts through the back just like a bangle."

"That's amazing." Possibilities began to fill his mind immediately, and Rupert's gaze grew distant. "Have you tried it on anything bigger?"

"Not yet, but I've thought about it. With no output changes from the manufactured materia, you can use them safely without havin' to worry about a surge breaking whatever you've got," Rhys said. "Like a battery, but with a bigger reserve of energy to run off of. Renewable, too."

"The potential applications here are amazing," Rupert said. "Materia as an energy source."

"Technically, a person's casting energy is the energy source - materia's the conduit," Rhys said. "Which does put a limit on how big you could take this. Or how active it can be - it needs to be in contact with a human. I doubt animals have enough of a presence to count."

Rupert nodded slowly, considering it. "You'd need another source, independent of humans, to run something without a person there."

"Right, yeah." He nodded. "I mean, materia packs a lot of power, but it's dormant power. You need something to kick it into gear, y'know? Somethin' to start the process. If you were gonna get much bigger, you'd start to feel the drain from it. People don't hold spells very long. Might be better just to design batteries you can charge with a Thunder spell."

Rupert nodded, still running it over in his mind. There had to be a way. It was too good an idea to just let it go that fast.

"I'll think on it," Rhys promised. "Maybe run some things by Valentine and Faremis, they're coming in aren't they?"

"Soon, yes. I'd appreciate it." There had to be something they were missing.

Between Grimoire, Gast and Rhys they worked out a viable system for creating new materia. Of course, there was the matter of finding the materials for it, and the trio ended up going north for a time to the Corel area where they could speak with a pair of smiths more familiar with handling materia. But they came back successful, which was what mattered to Rupert. He had his father's support in trying to find ways to manufacture materia - if he succeeded, it would be more than just advantageous to the company, it would revolutionize the materia industry.

And they succeeded, even if it took months to get a viable sample out of the machine. Months was still an incredible advantage over the years it could take traditional materia to form, and the ability to reliably say what materia would be formed was unheard of. No longer would they be reliant on dredging pools to harvest materia - they were now able to produce their own, something no one else on the Planet had ever accomplished.

But something strange happened when they tried to speed up the process.

Rupert would remember the moment clearly, looking back. He'd been in a little office in Rakheim, not far from where Rhys had been monitoring the prototypes for the new materia chambers, when there was a knock on his door. He'd let himself in, too distracted for more than a pretense of manners, seemingly fixated on the small machine he was carrying. "Yes?"

"It's charged."

Rupert blinked, confused by his tone. "What?"

"The mythril is holding an energy charge," he explained. "You get a little buzz when you touch it."

Rupert rose from his seat, puzzled and more than a little curious, and touched a fingertip to the metal. Sure enough, he felt a low grade charge spark at him, the hairs on his arm raising. "It's like static, but stronger… electric."

"Exactly. Something about the agitator we put in the mako is reacting with the mythril," he said.

Rupert nodded slowly, hand flattening against the metal for a moment, feeling the increased tingle through his arm. That wasn't just static. "Rhys… this is electric. You're generating energy."

"It is," Rhys agreed, his thumb rubbing the side of the container. For a moment they were both silent, looking at each other while the quiet buzz filled the silence. "…we could harness this."

"If it's still viable on a larger scale…" Rupert trailed off, mind working rapidly. He wasn't sure of all the consequences of this discovery, but he had a gut feeling they'd just stumbled onto something big. "Draw up a design for a bigger version and a generator that can store the generated power. I want to do something with this."

"Yessir." He nodded, heading back presumably to do as asked.

Rupert watched him go, rubbing his hands together until the tingling began to fade. They had something here. Something big. He just wasn't sure what it was.

Not until later, when Rhys had rigged up the generator and powered a bank of lights with it, did the potential he was looking at hit him. Mako energy.

Graham Shinra stared at his son over his glasses, lips pursed into a thin line. Privately, he had to admit he was impressed. Rupert had done a lot for the business; with his discovery of how to manufacture materia they were doing better than ever. But this… "What am I looking at?"

"You're looking at an experimental new energy source," Rupert said. "Pulled directly from the Planet itself, generated from mako processing within a mythril design and providing and endless clean energy."

"Interesting," he admitted, eyeing the generator setup. "Very interesting. But ShinRa is a weapons manufacturer, son. We don't deal in energy."

"We could," Rupert said immediately. "Father, the materia discovery revolutionized the face of war. This? This could revolutionize the world."

"I'm not going to fund what may be a wild goose chase that's not even in our wheelhouse," Graham said firmly. He saw his son's eyes narrow and fought back a smile. If he felt so strongly about it, though… "But."

Rupert straightened, wary. "But?"

"But I'll make you a deal," he proposed. "I'll give you a thousand gil and a building of your own, either in Rakheim or Marek, to get started with. From there, you're responsible in finding your own investors to fully fund your project. You will be responsible for paying your own employees, for arranging reputable sources to research the process and make sure of what you're doing. I'll check back on you in… let's say, three years. And we'll see if this is really viable."

Rupert's breath caught softly, a slow smile spreading over his face. "Deal."