Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII. I depend on my daughter, xXxValentinexXx, and on Bjanik for all my information on the subject.

A/N—Time is becoming an issue. I've got three storylines going now and am having a bit of trouble keeping them all straight timewise. I recently scanned a copy of xXxValentinexXx's map of the Final Fantasy VII world and started adding time zones. I realized then that I had one chapter occurring 3 chapters too early… Hm…

"Excuse me, but is that a picture of Londo Shinra?"

"I'm sorry, sir. What did you say?" the secretary raised her head from her computer to look at the lawyer seated across from her in the waiting area.

"In that picture on the credenza, isn't that Londo Shinra?" The man stood and crossed the room to pick up a framed photo and showed it to the secretary.

"Uh, yes, it is."

"And who are the other people in the picture with him?"

"That's Ms. Hiland, her daughter, and her grandson." Just then the door to the inner office opened, and a silver-haired version of the woman in the photo emerged extending her hand. He set the picture back.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Lowell," Lowell shook the small woman's hand and looked at her closely. He guessed her age at about seventy. Her eyes were red and swollen. Had she been crying over the news he had brought? Lowell smiled showing perfect straight white teeth. Lynette Hiland found herself smiling tentatively back. Lowell was about thirty, dark-skinned, with wavy black hair. The charcoal gray suit he wore had an empty left sleeve tucked into the jacket's overlap, but otherwise he looked fit. He handed her his card which she read—"Edward P. Lowell, Esq.—Wills, Trusts, Estates, Probate—Smith, Lowell & Ryerson, P.C."—with offices in Midgar and Junon.

"Please come in and sit down. I'm Lynette Hiland. I'm the head of Apple Town. I was so sorry to get your message about Londo. He was a beloved member of our community… How did he die?"

"'Ned,' please," Lowell smiled at the woman as they sat, "Londo Shinra died of heart failure shortly after he returned to Midgar. Very tragic. An autopsy showed that he had had a weak heart for years… While the probate of his will would normally take up to a year to complete, he did leave a bequest for Apple Town with specific instructions that the money be turned over to the community within one month of his demise." Looking at his watch, Lowell continued, "If you'll notice, I'm almost two weeks early."

"Yes." Ms. Hiland smiled. "You must understand… Ned… this is all so sudden. Just three weeks ago I had dinner with Londo. That was the night he told me he was going back to Midgar to resume management of his company. I was stunned by his decision. He'd been here for years. I had thought he was happy here, but he simply left."

"Yes. I see. That does seem odd." Lowell opened a briefcase he'd set at his feet and took out a legal file folder. "I'd like to read to you what Mr. Shinra wrote in his will, 'To my beloved Lynette Hiland and the Apple Town Foundation, I leave the sum of five million gil. I hope that she will apply the money to the furtherance of the Banora Project on which she and I have been working for years.' That's all he wrote. May I ask, just what is the 'Banora Project'?"

"Hm?" Lynette Hiland seemed distracted. "Oh yes. Londo was very generous… Well, the goal of the Banora Project is to restore the banora apple orchards that were fire-bombed by Shinra several years ago. When Shinra destroyed the orchards, nearly the world's entire supply of "stupid apples" was destroyed. An entire variety eliminated! What a terrible pity… Are you familiar with banora apples, Mr. Lowell?"

Lowell leaned forward, "Please forgive me, Ms. Hiland, but what fire-bombing?"

"Oh. Well according to Londo the Shinra company had been performing some secret experiments in Banora just a few miles from here. Unfortunately the experiments got out of hand. Londo said that the all the facilities and the surrounding area had to be destroyed, for the protection of everyone. You understand."

"I see… So the funds are to go to plant apple orchards?"

"Yes. We've restored about two thousand acres of banora apples from the few that survived. With the funds from Londo, we'll be able to restore several thousand more acres… I think we'll name the new orchards in his honor." She smiled again.

"I'm sure he would have liked that." Lowell stood and handed an envelope and a copy of the will to her. "This is a cashier's check for the funds made out to you and the Apple Town Foundation. If you would sign and date here,.. and here,… and here," he paused leaning over the desk pointing at the signature lines on three copies, "for receipt of the money."

"Yes, of course…" she signed the receipts, glanced at the check in the envelope, then set it aside. "I suppose the funeral has already been held. I would have liked to meet his son…"

"A private funeral was held a week ago. There will be a public remembrance in his honor in a few weeks, but the date hasn't been finalized yet. I'll see to it that you're notified of the arrangements, if you like."

"Yes, please do." Lynette Hiland stood. "As long as you're here, Mr. Lowell, would you like the grand tour?"

"Why, yes! Thank you. My ship back to Midgar doesn't leave until this afternoon. I had wondered what I was going to do with my time."

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"Way to go, partner, the 'grand tour'!" Rude could hear Reno clearly via the tiny receiver in his inner ear. Rude would kill Reno when he got out of here. "I think she likes you, buddy! See if she'll show you her place, too!"

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Reno and Rude had arrived separately in Mideel a week before to try to get an angle on Apple Town. Reno had worked the underside of the city—bars and sleazy night clubs. Rude had taken a mid-level approach talking with local authorities and Shinra security people. So far all their investigations had been largely futile, however. Everyone they had talked to gave them much the same story. Apple Town was a commune about ten miles outside of Mideel. The members were a little flaky (their whole purpose in life seemed to be the restoration of banora apples), but they came and went freely in the city and paid their bills and taxes on time. They had never given anyone any trouble. There had been no incidents and no disappearances of locals. There was nothing in the least bit sinister about Apple Town. Reno had toyed with the idea of going undercover as a new recruit to the commune, but then they had hit on the idea of Rude posing as a lawyer. The will and the check were legit – though it had taken time to get them from Midgar.

"They're a little too perfect to be normal, yo. It ain't normal, I swear! I mean who the hell pays their bills and taxes on time, every time?!"

"Londo Shinra was wearing a wire, and yet there's nothing here." Rude sat at a small desk in Reno's room. The pair was holed up at a down-side hotel in Mideel. Rude's lawyer persona, Lowell, had got on the late afternoon ship to Midgar (hair and all), but Rude had quietly slipped off. "Nothing in the apartment—we went over it with a fine-toothed comb. What are we missing?" Reno noticed that Rude was cleaning the attachments for his left arm, again.

"Play me the part again—what the old lady said when you asked about the bombing?" Reno was sitting on the bed smoking with his toes… again.

"Would you stop that!" Rude picked up the small recorder from the bed next to him, ran it to the beginning, and listened to a tinny version of Lynette Hiland's voice: "…according to Londo the Shinra company had been performing some secret experiments in Banora just a few miles from here. Unfortunately the experiments got out of hand. Londo said that the all the facilities and the surrounding area had to be destroyed, for the protection of everyone…"

"What experiments in Banora?... Did she say Banora was near Apple Town?"

"Yeah. Just a few miles from Apple Town… I think we should check out Banora. See if it really is a bombed out shell. Get Tseng on the line and let him know."

"Right." Reno crushed out his cigarette.

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"What did you think of Mr. Lowell, Vanessa?" Lynette Hiland was questioning her secretary.

"He was certainly polite, ma'am, but he took quite an interest in your picture of you with Mr. Shinra." She waved a hand in the direction of the credenza.

"Really? Well it does include Londo Shinra, once the most powerful man on Gaia. I suppose that could make someone inquisitive."

"He asked who the other people in the picture were."

Lynette Hiland cut her eyes at her secretary, "and what did you tell him?"

"Just that the other people in the picture were you, your daughter, and grandson."

"Hm. Vanessa, I want to view the surveillance tape of his visit. Please set it to run in my office. Let's have another look at Mr. Lowell."

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"Banora?!" Warning bells went off in Tseng's head. "What!!"

"Okay, boss, spill… We heard Shinra had been running experiments in Banora and that the town was fire-bombed. Couldn't have been for rotten apples, now could it, yo?"

Tseng remembered all too well the sight of airships firing ordinance into the small country town and surrounding orchards as he'd flown away in his helicopter. Innocent people had died in that town, and he'd been ordered to do it and get out.

"Banora… All right… Londo Shinra personally financed two sets of experiments aimed at producing super-Soldiers, all outside the official Shinra labs, you understand. One project you already know about—Project Jenova in Nibelheim, run by Hojo, it produced Sephiroth. The other was Project G in Banora, run by Vester Hollander, it produced two super-Soldiers. One was Genesis Rhapsodos. The other was Angeal Hewley. The official line is that Genesis was 'lost,' presumed dead in Wutai. The real story is that both Soldiers were unstable and degenerated. Zack Fair killed Hewley when Hewley merged with some clones and became a monster. Rhapsodos, though, may still be alive. Hollander continued the work in Banora even after he took over the main Shinra labs in Midgar. He was trying to stabilize Hewley and Rhapsodos, but he also produced a bunch of clones of those two in Banora, and they ran amok. Londo Shinra had the town and surrounding area leveled. Whatever you might have thought about Hojo, he seems to have been a better scientist than Hollander—Sephiroth's stable—though I'd like to give his wife all the credit for that."

"You think old man Shinra was still financing some form of this Project G? That's what we may have here?"

"I don't know. Maybe. In fact—probably… I was Verdot's field commander on that operation. I can tell you we leveled the whole area, but if Rhapsodos is still alive then it's almost certain that Hollander is too… Yes, they could have moved back into Banora and restarted operations… If that's what's happened, I want you to be very careful but get over there tonight and check it out."

"You know me, boss man. 'Careful' is my middle name." Reno paused. Was that Tseng's teeth grinding?—ha! "Do you remember anything about the local layout? Where the labs were?"

"The labs were about a half mile outside the town in a large warehouse-looking building. Find what's left of the town and head a bit north of due west. If there's anything left there, let me know fast."

"Right," Reno flipped the PHS closed and turned to his partner with a smirk. "Show time."

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Lynette Hiland turned off the video. Lowell seemed legitimate, just very curious. He had also asked a number of questions during the tour. She turned to the phone. "Vanessa, would you put me through to Mr. Rhapsodos, please?"