The president sat at his desk, comfortable in his chair, staring out the window. He watched as his security forced people away, those who had been trying to get in to see him. He saw his Turks, his beloved group of Turks, reeking havoc upon the weak people of the slums. He turned away from the window.

Don't I have anything better to do than to watch the pain that I voluntarily allowed to come to those people down there? I could stop it with a simple word. All I'd have to do is tell the Turks to come back in. I could tell the security guards to be nicer to the people. But no, instead I sit up in my office watching from above, thinking about the different things I could do. I need to find a new hobby.

He turned back to his window. As time passed, the Turks eventually stopped tormenting their victims and reentered the building. He waited, and a few minutes later he heard someone coming up the stairs to speak with him.

"What is it Tseng?" he said while still facing the window, before the unknown person had a chance to speak.

"While the Turks were out getting information, we learned that a rebel band of outcasts, calling themselves AVALANCHE, are planning an attack on our reactor number one."

"And what are you here to ask?"

"I want to be put in charge of preparing our defense against this attack."

"As the head of the Turks, you automatically have that responsibility. So why are you asking me for it, unless that's not really what you're asking."

"As always, you already know what I want."

"You want me to make sure Reno doesn't take control like he did last time." Tseng nodded. "Very well. Send him to me and I'll speak with him." Tseng nodded again and left. Rufus only had to wait a few minutes before he heard Reno coming up the stairs.

"Tseng said you wanted to see me sir?"

"Yes. I'm telling you now that Tseng is in charge of our defense against the next attack, and if you interfere or disobey orders I'll make sure you never see the light of day again. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Now go see what Tseng wants you to do." Reno left, leaving Rufus to return to his window watching. The security guards were standing around aimlessly, with no more people trying to get in they had no more entertainment.

Pitiful. They are only entertained by the pain of others.

He sighed. He knew it was his own fault. It just seemed that he could never bring himself to care enough to do anything about it. After another ten minutes of boredom, he turned back to his computer. He looked through random files, checking up on some of Hojo's most recent experiments.

There's nothing more to watch outside, and I've read over these files one hundred times each. All I can do is wait for this alleged AVALANCHE attack. And there's no telling when they plan on attacking.

Rufus got up from his desk and headed to the control room. He accessed the security cameras, but the only people currently moving were his own Turks. He checked the surrounding areas outside the building, checking for anything out of the ordinary. He was disappointed that none of his Turks had thought to watch the security cameras for the AVALANCHE group.

As he walked back to his office, he kept thinking about the coming attack. He wondered what kind of tactics they would use to try to destroy the reactor. Just when he reached his office, he felt the explosion below. He quickly looked out the window to see if he could discover anything. He saw the side of a part of his building explode, but no one had been there to be injured by it.

No, wait. There is someone down there.

He watched in horror. There was a young woman down there. She had been walking by when the explosion occurred, and it had knocked her into the building a few yards away. Rufus quickly took one of the elevators down to the ground level. He ran across the street towards the young woman.

"Are you all right?" he asked her. She didn't answer. He saw that she had many cuts and bruises, but she also had a serious gash on the back of her left shoulder. He also couldn't help but notice her chestnut colored, waist-length hair. He picked her up and carried her back into the building. The minute he had her in one of the labs he ordered Hojo up there immediately.

"Tend to her wounds," he ordered Hojo. He then left and went back to his office. As he had expected, Tseng was there waiting for him.

"Is everything all right sir?" Tseng asked.

"Yes. What happened with the reactor?"

"AVALANCHE was able to get past our barriers unfortunately. They succeeded in destroying one of out reactors. The explosion they caused was big enough to blow out a small section of wall on the Sector 1 side of the building."

"Can we re-build the reactor?" He had to know the extent of the damage.

"I believe so, but it will take time."

"Do it." Tseng nodded and left. Rufus logged onto his computer and checked over the reactor files. He quickly calculated the cost to rebuild, and discovered the amount of time it would take to rebuild as well. Then he accessed the security cameras to see if AVALANCHE had left any clues. They had shut down the cameras that could get pictures of their faces, but there was another one they had missed. He brought up an image, enhanced it on his computer, and ran the search.

Cloud Strife, is it?

"Rufus?" Only one person out of all of his employees and contacts was permitted to call him by his first name.

"Yes Hojo?"

"The girl is awake. I thought you might want to explain to her what happened."

"Thank you." Rufus followed Hojo back to the lab. When he walked in, the young girl immediately looked at them. "How are you feeling?" Rufus asked her. Hojo left the room and shut the door.

"Confused," she said quietly.

"Can you remember anything that happened?" he asked her. She thought for a minute, thinking.

"I was walking past the reactor in Sector 1, when, it exploded. I was thrown into, something."

"You were thrown into a concrete building. I brought you here to begin healing your wounds."

"Where am I?" Rufus wasn't sure how she would handle hearing that she had been brought to the ShinRa building. So instead of telling her that, he decided to tell her half of the truth.

"You're in my business building."

"Thank you then."

"You're welcome. Where were you heading?"

"To the ShinRa building," she answered slowly.

"What for?" Before she could answer, Hojo walked back into the room.

"She really should rest Rufus," Hojo said.

"Of course." He nodded at her and left. Hojo did a few more things with the computers, but then also left. Once alone, she decided that her only option was to sleep, so she did. Rufus headed to his own room after leaving the lab. He received a report from Tseng about the attack and then sent the Turks on another mission.

That's their fifth mission this week. That's more than they normally get. But this was an important mission. Why am I trying to justify my actions? I'm the President of ShinRa Company. They signed a contract to do what I tell them. If I need them to do something, they are required to do it. I need to stop thinking about this.

Rufus shut down his computer and left his office. He went into his room and got some sleep. When he woke up the next morning, he first went to the lab to see if the young woman was awake yet. She was just waking up when he walked in.

"Good morning," Rufus said. He closed the door behind him.

"Hi," she replied simply.

"Feeling any better?"

"A little."

"Good. Perhaps now that you're feeling somewhat better you'd like to take a walk?" She nodded, and began to get up. Rufus helper her stand, since she seemed slightly unsteady on her feet. He led her to the elevator and took it to another floor. Then he opened a door and led her into a room. "This is our greenhouse," he told her. "The plants are sometimes used in experiments by our scientist."

"What kind of experiments?"

"Just some tests to discover things like what happens when you combine two different plants together."

"Oh."

Rufus pointed out different plants, but soon realized he had to support her more and more. She was still recovering and needed to rest a little more. So he led her out of the greenhouse and back to the labs.

"You should rest a little longer. When you're fully healed I can show you around some more."

"Thank you again."

"It's my pleasure." He left her to rest and headed back to his office. On the way there, he told Hojo to check on her periodically. He also asked Hojo to try to find out her name, since had not done so yet. From there he went to his office to check on his Turks. The first one he was able to get a hold of was Tseng.

"How is the mission going?" Rufus asked.

"We ran into a few problems, but we're got them under control now," Tseng said. "Reno should be reporting to me in a few minutes to let me know how things went."

"Report to me when you know something new."

"Right away." Rufus hung up. He waited there for a few minutes, before the phone rang again.

"Yes?" Rufus said as he answered the phone.

"Reno let the specimen get away I'm afraid," Tseng told him. "He claims Cloud Strife helped her escape."

"I see. Tell Elena and Rude to return. You can come with them. Tell Reno not to return until he completes the job."

"Will do sir," Tseng answered. Then he hung up.