He had been stupid the first time to have even listened to the 'commission' the Turks had proposed but, oh, how he'd wanted to kill himself when he'd actually thought they'd have real work for him after the whole resurgent fiasco. The entire ride had his mind focused on another confrontation with not so much the Turks themselves, but he whom they answered to; Rufus Shinra. Rufus Shinra and that incorrigible attitude, that smug smirk, that…that tone when he spoke down to him. He was just too… When forced to deal with him, something just scraped at him, clawed, bit, and chewed at his nerves.
Too proud.
That was it, Cloud knew. That was what he detested about dealing with Rufus Shinra. The man was too proud for his own good. Even after he'd been reduced to nothing more than a hobbling man after the disastrous Mako Cannon and Diamond Weapon affairs, added to the rapid onset of Geostigma, Rufus had refused to be humbled, talking to him as if he were still president.
Or had tried.
But Cloud hadn't wanted anything to do with that. Rufus, Shinra, no longer held any sway for him. The man hadn't smirked or talked down to him once last time. He had treated him as an equal, almost lowering those arrogant shoulders enough to put himself below Cloud. Almost. But the flowery vestiges of praise falling from such practiced lips didn't hold his attention for more than necessarily needed to discover the true intentions behind them. Cloud was confused and naïve no longer and such attempts at power plays were futile. Words no longer held sway over Cloud Strife.
Not from Shinra.
Rufus had dropped his pretense quite quickly after Cloud's threat. He had become subservient immediately, as submissive as Shinra got, and played to Cloud's direction. He had needed him. So he had said, so he had demonstrated. Cloud remembered, remembered how Rufus had been eager to show his 'noble' and truthful intentions in little gestures; such as sending his Turks as messengers, as informants, as backup. And as aid. The image of the two front men rushing towards him in fading sight drifted across his memory fleetingly but poignantly. Something about that caused him to frown and he rewound to give it closer thought, to find what it was that didn't sit easy with him, the last leg of the journey to Healin Lodge just ahead. How had the Turks known where to…? And it was then that he knew.
"Fuck."
Rufus Shinra had been in control the entire time.