Chance Opportunity

One day, when Cloud walked into the Weapons Department with his schematics under one arm, he stopped to stare. Young Rufus Shinra (he was only sixteen years old, and actually looked a lot softer with his hair falling around his face instead of slicked back) was demanding from Scarlet, "I want the same kind of shotgun as my mother had, and I don't care if you say I can't handle it. Your job is to give me the weapon I want to use."

"If you can't handle the weapon, what good is it going to do you?" Scarlet asked in reply, clearly annoyed. "That's still a shotgun, and it's going to do the same damage as your mother's did, but you'll actually be able to keep control of it. That's why I adjusted the design."

"But it's not—" the sixteen-year-old began his tone entirely snide and demanding.

"Rufus Shinra," Cloud cut in, voice flat and emotionless. Both Rufus and Scarlet faced him in surprise. "I think there's something you need to see before you keep arguing about a gun with Scarlet. Come with me."

"But—" the older man began.

Rather than listen to him spout nonsense, Cloud reached out and grabbed his wrist, then pulled him from the room and to the elevator. When the older blond demanded to be released, Cloud ignored him, even keeping hold of his wrist while they were in the elevator. Rufus actually did try to pull away, but he was a normal, un-enhanced man while Cloud had strong Mako infusions, and it was clear Rufus also wasn't combat-trained. That meant he wasn't able to free himself, so Cloud just ignored his protests and kept pulling him.

By the time they had reached the Turks' office, Rufus had fallen silent with a glare, but was walking properly with him. It didn't stop their presence (or just Rufus') from producing shocked stares from the other present Turks, but he was on a mission, so he just paused to ask Lakis (1), "Can you cast Blind on Rufus so I can take him into places he's not supposed to know the location of?"

Understanding lit in all the Turks' eyes, and Lakis agreed, "I can do that for you, and go with you to remove it." He then cast Blind on the Shinra Heir. The Turk with curly, brown hair falling to about the chin and brown eyes followed them into the hidden area and to the room which was now a shrine to the past Turks, removing Blind from Rufus when Cloud had pulled him in front of his mother's shrine and turned him to face it.

At first, as his gaze cleared, the sixteen-year-old was about to yell, but then he froze and asked in a winded tone, "What is this?"

All three were startled when Veld's voice came from behind them to say, "It's a shrine to the past Turks, the ones who are now dead. Your mother wasn't just the one who founded the Turks, she also was one of us, our leader through example." He paused and moved up to stand beside Rufus, who was staring at him in stunned surprise. "She was a good woman and a skilled Turk, even after her injuries took her off the field. I only regret that I was foolish enough to not see the trap I had fallen into until it was too late and I had already ended her life. Now, this is all I can do, other than trying to fix what went wrong."

"...What trap?" Rufus asked slowly, turning back to the shrine for his mother.

Sighing, the man clarified, "I'd been orphaned young and wanted closure in the form of a family heirloom which had been stolen from my former family estate. At the time I had asked her help in retrieving it...Before she gave me an answer, the President had offered that I go to him if I ever needed anything. When she told me she couldn't retrieve it, I was foolish enough not to ask why, and when he approached me a couple days later, I asked if he could get it when she hadn't been able to. A few days after that, he gave it to me, saying no one had died, they had just taken it out of the statue at night."

For a moment, the man paused, then gave his head a shake. "That turned out to be a blatant lie, because the whole village had been slaughtered, to the last child. That had been done before Lady Shinra told me she couldn't retrieve it, the raid on the village having been the reason she couldn't—they had taken everything and left no traces. As he didn't give it to me until after that, he could only have gotten it by having orchestrated the slaughter and looting of the village. Not only did he lie by creating the situation himself, but by having told me no one died. Unfortunately, I didn't know that until Terri brought me the paperwork showing it—and many other bits of paperwork which were suspect."

"How long ago did you find out all of that?" the younger man asked cautiously, gaze focused on the photo of his mother which was with the shrine.

"I was first made aware something was wrong a week ago, around the time Deepground suddenly became part of SOLDIER. Two days ago in the evening was when Terri handed over the paperwork," Veld answered, also looking at the photo. "The worst part is that I wasn't the only one betrayed that way, nor was I the only one who effectively betrayed her because we'd been led to believe a lie. Regardless, she still...gave everything to us, and for us, tried desperately to keep us safe...And to keep you safe, too, Rufus. I know she would be horrified by the way your father has been treating you, and she would be horrified that you actually believe you should rule by fear. That makes you no different from your father."

The blond snorted. "Right, I'll be just like the man who throws money at everyone to make them happy."

"And that would be you ignoring everything I just said about what he did to the Turks, and to your mother," Veld answered flatly.

A long silence fell, then Rufus asked in a cold voice, "And what makes you think you have the right to tell me what my mother would think of me, when you admitted yourself that you betrayed her knowingly?"

"Vincent, you should explain," the Turk Director said, voice only raised enough to be heard from the door of the room.

Rufus, Cloud, and Lakis all turned to look for the man, who was leaning on the wall beside the door, arms crossed over his chest. He cocked his head to the side and told Rufus, "Like your mother and Verdot, I'm one of the founding Turks, the ones she started with. My name is Vincent Valentine—yes, Grimoire Valentine's son. And Rufus Shinra, you need to realize that your mother was the one who picked us up, cleaned us off, gave us a direction, encouraged us to find and develop our true skills to their fullest. She saved us from a much worse fate, gave selflessly because she wanted to see us flourish, even before she'd truly befriended us. She would not like your cold view of the world. What's strange is that you already know her thoughts on that way of doing things, and you're deliberately choosing to disregard it, rather than live in her memory."

Bitterly, the younger man replied, "Her memory was that she was too soft and too easy to kill."

With another sigh, Veld told him, "No, that was her realizing your father was going to do much worse to you to push you away from her if she didn't let me kill her. She could still have fought, she could still have stopped me if she'd intended to, but in the end, we had discussed my orders to kill her, and she made the choice to sit quietly and let me pull the trigger. That was her final sacrifice to try to protect you as much as she could."

"Father couldn't have done anything to—" Rufus began in denial.

"At the time, I didn't know what he meant exactly, only that it was going to be harsh," Veld cut him off, voice emotionless. "Now that I know about Deepground, I'm sure that was where he intended to send you for 'conditioning' if your mother had still been alive. And Rufus, Deepground used every form of torture they could, necessary or not, to achieve their goal. You've seen Weiss a few times, haven't you? White haired boy in white clothes, notably injured when first brought here?" At the small agreement Rufus gave, the older man went on, "That's what Deepground did to him. If you think what you've gotten the last few years was bad, just imagine what a month in Deepground would have been like."

Turning back to the shrine, Rufus asked, "Where's her shotgun?"

"That was never her weapon, it was something she decided to use in the absence of having strong legs," Vincent replied, making Rufus turn back to him. "From the time I met her until she was injured in nineteen seventy, she had honed her skills with a chakram for distance battle and with her cane for close combat. She was strong and skilled, and absolutely believed that the best way to bring out the best in others was to find out what they were good at and what they wanted to do and giving them the ability to learn and do it. She would want you to find out what you're truly best at and to use it—only in that way would you emulate her. That's also true of how you should treat others."

Silence fell for a long time, then Veld sighed again and crouched to open the box under the table, pulling out stacks of letters and paperwork. "These were things she was working on, things she wrote, throughout her life. Take a look and tell me what you think makes her different from your father in dealing with others and where she thinks funds should go."

Taking them reverently, Rufus began reading carefully as the others waited quietly. As he finished with each one, Veld took them to return them to a neat stack in the box. Then, Rufus got to one final letter at the bottom of the stack he'd been given, and his eyes widened in surprise. After a pause, he opened the letter, which had been sealed properly (unlike the others, which had all been open), and began reading. When he finished it, he read it again.

After reading it a third time, he asked, "Did she write this before you shot her?"

"Yes," Veld agreed. "I never knew what it said, just that she wanted to write it for me to eventually give to you. There's really no better time than now, I think."

Rufus read the letter one more time, folded it closed and tucked it into the pocket on the inside of his white suit jacket, then reached out and picked up her cane, holding it in a strong, steady grip in one hand. Both Veld's and Vincent's eyes widened as he gave it an experimental swing, then placed it on the ground so he could grip the top with one hand and cover the bottom hand with his other hand.

"Just like Lady Shinra," Vincent commented softly.

"Just like," the Turk Director agreed.

Rufus' lips quirked, then he asked, "You'll let me keep it, then?"

"As long as you're willing to learn to use it properly," Veld agreed.

"And if I want the Turks to test me with other potential weapons?" the blond asked, turning to look at Veld again.

"We'll arrange for you to do so, on the assumption that any weapon you decide on will be one you'll willingly train in," the Director replied.

"Then we should get started," Rufus agreed.

Veld turned to Vincent and asked, "Can I appeal to you to be his primary instructor in weapons, Vincent?"

"I'm primarily a marksman, Verdot..." Vincent replied, tone sounding tired.

"But you know every weapon and how to defend yourself against them, as well as how they work. And, you're someone who will show him what he's really up against in this world, and how best to deal with those dangers," Veld pointed out, looking vaguely amused. Cloud had to wonder why.

At a notably annoyed look from Vincent, the boy wondered if he'd have to do some damage control, but instead, the older, black haired man said, "Figure out which weapons I need to train him in and I'll do what I can for him. I'm not going to help with the weapon-choosing process."

"Fair enough," Veld agreed, his expression pleased. "That was what I wanted you to do, anyway."

Vincent's expression became more annoyed. "I know. You always liked to play that game—make something sound much worse so I agree to a more minor form of it, a form which was actually what you wanted from me in the first place. I knew what you meant, and agreed to do this for my own reasons, not yours. Your tricks don't work on me anymore, Verdot, just to be clear on that." His gaze then moved from a startled and embarrassed Veld to a startled and bemused Rufus to say, "As for your training, young Shinra, I will do my best to train you once your weapons have been chosen, but you're going to have to put in comparable effort, not the semi-effort I suspect you have been until now. Am I clear?"

"Absolutely," Rufus agreed. "How will I know when to see you about that?"

"Verdot will let you know when the first meeting will be," the other man told him. "After that, we'll work out a schedule that works for you."

The blond nodded, then paused and asked, "Maybe this is jumping topics a bit, but where are Tseng and Neirine?"

"Away on an undercover mission," Veld sighed. "If you really need to get a message to them—either or both—we still can, but otherwise, you coming across them would be completely accidental, and you'll probably not recognize them if you do. They needed very secure disguises, after all. And before you ask, yes, Neirine is fine after recovering from her injuries."

That apparently annoyed Rufus as he commented, "That doesn't help me with training Dark Nation."

"Dog training?" Cloud asked in vague amusement, making everyone but Vincent look at him in mild surprise.

"How do you know about that?" Rufus asked sharply. "Even my father doesn't."

"Tseng briefly mentioned how he retrieved a wild, rare black Blood Taste for you," Vincent commented, making Rufus look at him with a glare. "It came up because we'd been talking about 'getting control of monsters', and he offered proof of his having the ability to do so without always killing them. Since they're closest to dogs, they also train similarly, so anyone who knows anything about dog training can help you. Surely someone in the Turks does, as I assume they all knew about that?"

Of course, Cloud knew that was a lie because they and Tseng had never discussed such a thing, but he realized they needed a logical reason for why they knew something they weren't supposed to. And that would make sense, so he had to commend Vincent for thinking of it on the spur of the moment without it even sounding strange.

"They weren't supposed to," Rufus scowled.

"But we're Turks, so we do," Lakis answered in bemusement. "If all else fails, I can quietly get you some books, but I think Verde and Derin are your best starting points to ask for help. Verde actually owns a dog, but I'm not sure it's a normal one, and even though I know he has it, I very rarely see it. If he's trained it to stay quiet and out of sight, that's an impressive dog and an impressive trainer."

With a huff, the blond man admitted, "That may be a reasonable starting point, then. Since I don't have any time with Neirine now, I suppose some of it can easily be used for both kinds of training."

"Thank you!" Cloud suddenly cut in, startling everyone into looking at him. "Just promise me you'll leave Scarlet alone about the gun now. You weren't doing any favors by making yourself look like a moron in front of her, and her respect for you was dropping with every word you spoke. She wouldn't have been very likely to ever obey you whenever you take over for your father if I hadn't stopped you."

"I could just fire her if she wouldn't take orders," Rufus pointed out heatedly.

"And you'd have lost the trust and respect of the rest of your board if you did that when you had already caused them to not trust and respect you," Vincent pointed out to him flatly. "Other than ass-kissing brown-nosers, those things have to be earned, and all of the board members are older and more experienced than you. Well, maybe barring Heidegger and Palmer. Trying to tell them you unanimously know more than they do means you're not listening to them in regards to their own fields, so no, they won't take orders from you. Whether you like it or not, your behavior towards others actually affects how they see you. Treat others with respect and normally you'll get it back. Do the opposite, and you'll get that back, too. Just think on that for awhile while you're working out which weapons you want."

Rufus looked very upset by the words, but to his credit, he didn't say anything further about the topic, just turned to Veld and said through gritted teeth, "So, I need to speak with Verde, possibly Derin, and whoever will be testing me with weapons. We should get started before someone takes exception to my disappearance."

"Of course. Lakis, if you would?" Veld directed at the Turk, and all four of them knew it was a request to Blind him again so they could take him back to the main office. He did and they were gone soon after, Lakis to once again remove Blind once out of the hidden area.

When Cloud and Vincent were alone in the room, it was Cloud who asked, "You actually have reasons to want to train him?"

"Don't you have reasons for having brought him here?" Vincent replied.

Cloud shot him an annoyed look. "Seriously? He was being disruptive and making people hate him. This pretty much shut him up."

"And if you didn't care and didn't have a reason, it wouldn't have mattered to you what kind of fool he made of himself. Instead..." Vincent drifted off with a pointed look around the Turks' Shrine room.

For the first time in his life, Cloud had no answer, so just sighed, his expression puzzled. Vincent seemed to find that amusing, but he just shrugged slightly and left the room, and Cloud could then get on with his own work.

MB

It honestly wasn't often that nearly every First sat around seriously observing Cadets, Thirds, and Seconds to get a feel for their skills. Genesis was a little bemused by how seriously they had taken his advice to pay attention to them to find commonalities and things they could actually train, yet here they were, doing just that. Though, because the new Cadet class was just starting, they were largely observing only the new Thirds and up. He didn't blame them for that—it was better to wait until at least the half-way point of the class before bothering to choose, otherwise there was a good chance the Cadets would drop out.

Since he and Angeal had already chosen Thirds from the newest promoted group, the other Firsts were also seriously looking at them, for which both were thankful, but in every case, Sephiroth ran into the same problem, over and over again: they all had too much hero worship of him to pay attention. At least most of the other Firsts had gotten past that enough to be effective, but it wasn't an ideal training situation. He'd tried, he really had, but he couldn't take on someone who viewed him that way, and Genesis didn't actually blame him, love of attention aside.

"I'm surprised the Firsts are taking this seriously," Angeal commented while he, Genesis, Sephiroth, Kunzel, and Zack sat in the cafeteria eating.

"I'm not," Kunzel answered dryly. At the questioning looks sent his way, he answered, "Most of them asked me about my thoughts. I agreed to give Genesis a shot because he introduced himself to me by showing me something about my own skills I hadn't known or realized before—he was prepared, knew what I was doing wrong, and knew how to prove it. I wouldn't have trusted him if he couldn't have done that much, and to do that with something which isn't magic, that means knowing the mentee's skills.

"But being prepared also means being able to appropriately answer questions about how certain skills work or why they're going to train the mentee a certain way, which Genesis also did with a completely impromptu question the first night. How can you possibly be a Mentor if you have no idea how to explain to your mentee why you think they should handle their blade this way instead of that way? When they asked me, I told them plainly that they actually have to prove they can guide and teach, not just toss them into a melee and let them have at. It's because I explained my reasoning that they're being cautious and making sure they're choosing someone they can do right by."

"That's shockingly impressive to realize, and to point out," Angeal commented, then glanced at Genesis for a moment. "But how did you get them to believe Genesis had actually done exactly that for you? I know how good a teacher he can be when he chooses to do it, but others largely don't have a favorable opinion of him."

"Yeah, they asked," Kunzel agreed, looking over to meet Genesis' wary gaze. "But Genesis, I told them the truth about what you did, what you explained to me, even the general way you helped me through 'a difficult situation with a peer.' It was a lot more than they would have expected anyone to do, or to explain, and they also realized I couldn't have made it up—it had too many details and verifying tells to be fake. Some of them probably asked Director Lazard about the incident to be sure it had really happened. How much he told them, I don't know, but it probably would have been enough. And to realize that's the kind of thing they'll have to do, too..."

"They decided Genesis' advice to observe and choose a match was the best route," Sephiroth finished the sentence with a faint sigh. "Some have even decided they have no interest at all in being a Mentor because it would be far too much work they had no intention of doing. In that, Lazard is grateful because we have limited rooms for Mentors to take, and he would have needed to refuse those who chose late, or he would have tried to find some other arrangement for them. As things stand, enough Firsts have refused the Program entirely that the rest should all be able to be accommodated, regardless of when they make their decision."

"Well, at least that's good," Genesis offered. "And I'm glad they're doing it right. Though, some of them could probably take virtually anyone and still do it well, that's rare. Both of my mentees I had a definite reason and purpose for choosing, even though those reasons were vastly different, as are the skills of the two I chose."

"Who was the other one?" Kunzel asked curiously.

The red haired man's brow rose, but rather than answer, he asked pointedly, "Have you taken Zack to meet the Flower Girl yet?"

"Huh? No, but I thought if I have time off this week at the same time as him..." Kunzel explained.

"What Flower Girl?" Zack asked in confusion.

"Now that Angeal is the one deciding Zack's time off, that's easy enough to arrange," Genesis told his mentee. "And Zack needs to meet her and we need an excuse to not be here to talk about things like that." Angeal and Sephiroth both looked amused as Zack looked puzzled and Kunzel realized what the older man was getting at.

"Okay, so when's a good day for that?" the Mage Third asked.

"I have plans with Zack already for today and tomorrow, but anytime after that hasn't been specifically arranged," Angeal offered. "Whenever you want to go, I'm sure both Gen and I can work around it."

"We can," Genesis agreed. "Especially since I'm setting that requirement."

"I'll get back to you this evening, then," Kunzel agreed.

"And on that note, was there anything else we needed to arrange this week?" Sephiroth asked, pulling out his PHS, finding something on it, and offering it to Genesis.

Taking it, the red-haired man read it—and saw that it was a request from Hojo for 'extensive testing and updates.' It actually also noted that they had to 'replace data they had lost,' making him wonder. Then he recalled the destruction of Jenova. "You want to avoid this, Seph?" Genesis asked. "It's likely he knows Jenova's toast now—probably went looking when he realized Vincent was here."

"That is true. I do wish to avoid it, especially because I know he is angry, even without knowing that is a likely additional cause," Sephiroth agreed.

Angeal and Genesis traded knowing looks while Kunzel and Zack traded worried ones, so Genesis shrugged and commented, "I think your best option is to tell Veld and the President the truth and have them negate this. Yes, it'll piss Hojo off more, but it'll mean he can't lay a hand on you unless you agree. In the meantime, we can make an outing of going to see the Flower Girl. Since things need to go differently this time, that's the best option. We can use the excuse of anything we can think of for 'training' in the Slums."

Everyone's eyes widened in surprise, but they all gave agreement to that plan.

Notes:

(1) Lakis is one of the younger OC Turks (he's still been there for years, though). He's also a total bookworm with a near-photographic memory, and he's the Turks' primary magical expert—their Mage. Those who read the Dimensions story will know an awful lot about him, some of which probably won't be applicable to this story. :D