Verna sat up in a bed. She winced at how sore her entire body was. She rubbed her shoulder and her eyes widened as she remembered what happened the night before. Verna looked at her shoulder and noticed it was bandaged. She must have been saved. She passed out before she could see who did so.

Verna looked around the room she was in to try and see who saved her. Her eyes narrowed, she was in Rufus's bedroom. Was he the one who saved her? Moving out from underneath the covers she gasped from the pain it was causing her. She must have been stabbed dozens of times for this amount of pain.

The door opened causing Verna to glance up at the person walking in. Her eyes met that of Rufus's. He kept a cold distant look to him, not that it was unusual. He sat a glass of water down on the end table next to Verna and sat down at the foot of the bed.

"I see you're awake," He spoke quietly.

"How long was I out?" Verna bit back a sarcastic reply. Something was telling her that she shouldn't mess with him.

"Not long, about 18 hours," Rufus moved some hair out of his face.

"What's wrong?"

Rufus looked over at her and raised an eyebrow, "What makes you think something's wrong?"

"The fact that whenever you move your hair out of your face there's something bothering you," Verna raised two fingers, "And the fact that you avoided my question with another question. Now what's wrong?"

Rufus stood up and made his way to the door. He stopped once he was in front of it and turned his head to the side ever so slightly, "Don't make me worry about you like that again."

Verna froze as Rufus walked out of the room. He was actually worried about her? The ice cold president of Shin-Ra Electric Power Company? She looked over at the water he placed on the end table and took a sip from it. She nearly gagged at a bitter taste that was in it. He mixed the water with a potion.

Knowing that she'd have a hard time finishing it, Verna placed it back on the end table and slowly walked to the door in the room. She whispered an "ow" every other step before she walked outside. She heard a couple of voices down the hall causing her to stop in her tracks.

"They know I'm a spy," It was a males voice, but it wasn't Rufus's.

"I see," Rufus spoke. "What do you plan to do?"

"I'd like to keep on helping them, sir. I know it may cost me my job, but I think that's what would be best. We're heading to the Ancient Temple to find something called a Black Materia. We believe that Sephiroth is after it."

"Then go ahead and do that, I'll send Tseng there," Rufus seemed calm. Something of which Verna expected him to be angry with.

Dark Nation suddenly passed by her and walked over to where Rufus was.

"Verna, come in here," Verna jumped when Rufus spoke her name and she walked in cautiously. She looked over to a man in a blue suit and a beard. "This is Reeve. He's one of our department managers. I figured you might want to hurt him or something."

Verna knitted her eyebrows together and she saw a smirk on his face. Her face turned to that of realization. She's hurt not just two of the department managers, but Rufus as well. She gave out a nervous laugh realizing what she's done.

"I think I've done enough damage as it is, I don't need any more of your men wanting to kill me," Verna turned to Reeve and bowed. "It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Reeve returned the bow. "Forgive me if this sounds rude, but what are you doing here?"

"I'm the newspaper writer that's caused his company some trouble," Verna scratched the back of her head. "After negotiating with him we've come to a bit of an agreement."

"Oh?" Reeve glanced over at Rufus. "That's interesting. Now, if you'll excuse me I must get going. My puppet can't be unmanned for that long. Have a good day." Reeve bowed before leaving the building.

Verna was about to open her mouth to question Rufus, but he spoke before she could, "He's one of the few managers who isn't corrupt. He actually cares about what the consequences for his actions might be. He stands for the people. I figured having him around could be valuable if we ever want the citizens of Gaia to accept us."

"I see…" Verna nodded her head. "Thanks for saving me."

Rufus eyes her from the corner of his eye, "You shouldn't have gone after him. My company could have disposed of him fast enough."

"I wanted to get revenge for myself," Verna crossed her arms as she started to remember more of the encounter, particularly what he said to her. "Did he work for Shin-Ra?"

"What do you mean?"

"He told me he was a Turk…That he was ordered by you to kill me for whatever it was that my father did."

"I can assure you he wasn't a Turk," Rufus narrowed his eyes. He had known every single Turk worked for Shin-Ra since the time his mother died. The man that attacked Verna wasn't one of them. "He must have been trying to get under your skin, which it appears to have worked."

"Well," Verna shrugged. "You know, whenever someone tries to kill you it can have that affect. Luckily, I had you to save me."

"You're still a loser," Rufus spoke. Verna looked slightly shocked by his choice of words. He raised a hand, "It's something my father would tell me in escaping death. L is for loser." Rufus turned to her, "I disagree, though. If you can live then you should live."

Verna grinned, "You should keep that in mind. If Sephiroth returns to strike against your company he might go after you. You should have a Turk with you, or something."

Rufus glanced down at Dark Nation, "That's why I have him with me. He's the one that actually saved you."

"Oh?" Verna walked over to Dark Nation and bent down. "Then I should reward my hero with a kiss!" Verna kissed the top of the panther's head. "You're a good boy!"

Rufus huffed slightly and took his phone before dialing a number, "Tseng, I need you to head to the Ancient Temple. Sephiroth will be there. Take precaution." He hung up and looked at Verna, "You should get back to bed."

"I'm just a little sore," Verna stood up. "There are far worst fates than this. I'm pretty sure I can get through it."

Rufus sighed out of frustration and moved some hair out of his face, "Fine, but I need to go to Midgar soon. Shin-Ra's hosting an annual event and I need to use it to meet with Heidegger and Scarlet to make sure they're not getting into trouble."

"What kind of event is it?"

"A masquerade ball," Rufus looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

It was obvious by his expression that he was thinking. He examined Verna over multiple times. She took a step back feeling slightly uncomfortable of being under his eye. Rufus's mouth turned upwards into a smirk. Verna gulped at his sudden change in moods.

"You'll be going with me."

"What!?" Verna nearly shouted. "But Heidegger will be there, h-he'll kill me!"

"Palmer will be there as well."

"Even worse!"

"They won't know it's you if you're wearing a mask," Rufus spoke simply. "Besides, they won't kill you if you're my date."

-A/N—

I really want to up the romance in this fan-fiction. I feel like I struggle writing such things…Probably because I've yet to experience anything relatively close to having a boyfriend. Haha…A-Anyways, I hope you like it. - The idea came from a masquerade came from what my high school's prom theme is this year. If a guy asks me to dance I'm going to say, "Nobody cared who I was until I put on the mask." XD

Well, I'm thinking about writing a Genesis fan-fic next, but in an alternate universe. What do you guys think~?