"Just act elegant and proper," Rufus whispered into Verna's ear. "Try not to speak to too many people and they won't know that you really shouldn't be here."

"If I shouldn't be here then why did you bring me here?" Verna questioned quietly. She started to feel like some sort of freak.

"Because I wanted you to come with me."

Verna watched him suspiciously behind her mask. He's been acting odd ever since she went out of the building. He must have not trusted her anymore. Verna held back a sigh; doing so could cause some suspicions as to who she really is.

"President Rufus!" A voice sounded as the two made their way into Shin-Ra's building. "How nice to see you!"

Verna looked at a plumper man. He was wearing a couple of casts. It was Palmer. Verna hid a smirk behind her hand seeing the damage she caused him. Served him right, he was running away from a fight.

"Palmer," Rufus responded, there was slight amusement in his voice. "Were your wounds really that severe?"

"Yes," Palmer's face grew dark. "When I find the bitch who did this to me she'll have another thing coming! I heard it was the girl who was writing for the newspaper. Did you capture her yet?"

"I did," Rufus nodded his head. Verna looked up at him in alarm. "But she managed to escape. One of the soldiers fell asleep while guarding her." Verna relaxed at his lie. "Now, do you know where Heidegger and Scarlet are? I need to speak to them."

"They're bickering as usual," Palmer nodded. His eyes managed to look at Verna. "You have a date?" Behind Palmer's mask Verna could see he was shocked.

"Yes," Rufus nodded. "I do. Let's go."

He put an arm around Verna and guided her away from Palmer. The man was left with a dumbstruck expression. Rufus looked for a clear table and led Verna there. He shifted a seat out and motioned for her to sit down. Upon doing so he sat down as well.

"What was that all about?"

Rufus leaned back in his chair and observed other people in the room, "Nothing."

"It has to be something. The look on Palmer's face was priceless," Verna smiled slightly.

Rufus glanced over at her and shook his head, "It was nothing important. Now we know that he wants to kill you, though."

"Perfect," Verna rolled her eyes. "I just love it when people try to kill me. It just gives me an excuse to not show as much skin as most people would. And most people being like her." Verna motioned her head towards a woman with an extremely low cut dress that showed much of her cleavage. To make matters worse it was high cut on her legs.

Rufus glanced over and shook his head, "That's Scarlet. She dresses like that all the time."

Verna raised an eyebrow, "Seriously? Holy Shiva." Verna shook her head.

"I agree," Rufus looked Verna over. "I prefer a woman who knows how to dress herself, and not look like a prostitute, and who has some actual standards."

Verna turned slightly pink, but it was hidden by her mask. She looked to the side seeing Scarlet walking over. Her mouth was pursed together tightly, suggesting she was rather angry. Behind her was a bearded man, Heidegger.

Verna tensed up slightly seeing the man that gripped her while on the way to Junon. She moved her chair a little closer to Rufus subconsciously. Rufus looked at her quickly and back to the pair walking over.

"Sit," he commanded the new comers and they did so. "I need to speak to you about Sephiroth."

Scarlet looked over at Verna, a slightly catty look in her eyes, "Should your date really be here for that?"

Rufus nodded his head, "She already knows almost everything about what's going on."

"You told her?" Heidegger's rough voice questioned in shock.

"No," Rufus shook his head, "She found out on her own."

Verna flashed a smirk towards them feeling slightly proud of herself. Scarlet glared at her. Verna made a mental note that another manager of Shin-Ra might be after her if she wasn't careful with this girl. It seemed as if Reeve was the only one that didn't have any negative thoughts about her.

"Now," Rufus sounded. "I have Tseng heading to the Ancient Temple as we speak. Reeve informed me that they're after something called the Black Materia."

"Black Materia?" Scarlet questioned as a smirk formed on her face. "It seems like we could use some rather big Materia then, couldn't we?" Rufus sent her a questioning look. "I've been looking for some Huge Materia. The power that they have would be exponential!"

"Gongaga," Verna whispered as she remembered her at the reactor, where she found her Titan Materia. She looked down at her arm where her Materia was stored. She still had no idea how to use it.

"Mmm?" Scarlet narrowed her eyes, "Yes, I was there. I'm assuming you're referring to the ruined reactor there. Exactly how did you learn about all of this?"

"Scarlet," Rufus warned her. "Stick on topic."

Scarlet gave a suspicious look and continued, "I believe there's one in Corel and one in that rebel station south of the Chocobo farms. If we can get the Huge Materia then we'll be able to create a weapon great enough to destroy Sephiroth and whatever he might be planning."

Rufus took a moment to consider it, "Go ahead and gather the Huge Materia, but be careful not to do anything that will make my company look bad. Do you understand?"

"Yes, whatever," Scarlet rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. Verna narrowed her eyes, that's not how one should treat their boss.

"Heidegger," Rufus looked over at the man with a short temper. "What are you planning on doing?"

"My Turks are going after AVALANCHE to take them out," He replied. "And I'm looking over that newspaper girl, I have a score to settle as you might know."

Rufus frowned, "I already told you not to go after AVLANCHE unless they interfere with us anymore." His face turned into that of fury. "Are you not going to listen to my orders?"

"Of course I will, sorry, sir," Heidegger's hands formed into fists. "Can I still go after the newspaper girl?"

"You can try," Rufus narrowed his eyes. "But good luck. Before the girl escaped-."

"You had her in custody?"

"I did…Now, before she escaped she gave me a name, but it turns out it was a false name and it had no relation to the newspaper."

Verna looked at Rufus in shock. He knew all along, but he didn't do anything else to try and get the truth from her. She looked down at her hands. She was starting to feel slightly guilty that she lied to him, but she couldn't betray her uncle.

"You may go after, but I doubt you'll find her."

"You underestimate my Turks," Heidegger gave a rough laugh.

"What did I say about that laugh?" Rufus stood up and narrowed his eyes. He placed his hands on Verna's chair and moved it out, "Let's go."

Verna nodded her head and stood up. Scarlet stood up as well. Verna gulped slightly as she followed Rufus to another part of the room. She couldn't help but feel the scrutinizing eyes of Scarlet on her.

"It seems like another one of your managers isn't the biggest fan of me," Verna pursed her lips together.

"Scarlet isn't the biggest fan of anyone," Rufus responded and then whispered to her, "If you run to her outside of this event you can go ahead and slap her, I won't have anything against it."

Verna began to laugh rather loudly. Tear built up in her eyes from laughing so hard. Rufus watched her and let out a small smile. Verna coughed as she tried to stop laughing. After a couple of minutes she recomposed herself and tried to wipe away her tears through the eye holes in her mask.

"Might I ask what's so funny? It's not every day that Rufus makes a person laugh," Verna looked over seeing Reeve standing there.

"Just that I gave her my permission to slap Scarlet," Rufus replied smoothly through a smirk.

Reeve chuckled for a moment, "That is rather humorous. I hope you won't try to hurt me, Ms. Alm."

"Not unless you do anything to hurt me," Verna grinned at him. "Besides, I don't want everyone in his company to want to strike revenge against me."

"Fair enough," Reeve nodded his head. "Now, President Rufus, AVALANCHE is almost at the Ancient Temple. Tseng should be there by now, according to Elena."

"Elena?" Rufus narrowed his eyes. "You talked to her?"

"She was at Wutai with Reno and Rude when AVALANCHE showed up. Tseng wasn't with them. She said he was on a mission. If he was already on his way there, then I'm assuming he made it, already. She should actually be here tonight."

"I see," Rufus nodded his head. "Thank you, Reeve. Keep me updated."

Reeve left, but was soon replaced with Scarlet, "Did you find something out, President Rufus?"

Rufus narrowed his eyes at the female, "Nothing that's important to what you're required to do."

"I see," Scarlet sighed and looked over at Verna. "Do you want to go to the washroom with me?"

"I," Verna froze not really sure what to do. Scarlet was up to something.

"Oh come on!" Scarlet forcefully grabbed onto Verna's arm and drug her away.

Rufus watched slightly angry that his manager would do that. He looked around the room for a Turk. His eyes landed on a blonde female. He walked over to her.

"Elena," Rufus spoke.

Elena turned around, "President Rufus!"

"Scarlet just took my date to the restroom, I want you to make sure that she doesn't do anything to her," Rufus spoke.

"Why?" Elena raised her eyebrows. She hasn't been a Turk long enough to learn not to question orders.

"Just make sure nothing happens, no matter who she is," Rufus ordered.

Elena scampered off towards the restroom.

Scarlet walked into the restroom and took her mask off before applying some makeup, "So how is it that you know Rufus?"

Verna shifted uncomfortably, "I-um…I ran into him at Rocket Town. I was there doing some research on space travel."

"Really?" She raised an eyebrow. "And exactly what happened while you were there?"

"Well, Palmer was hit by a truck, so I ran over to see if I could help him," Verna pursed her lips together. "He was unconscious, so I took out some medical supplies to help him. Rufus was rather angry. He had that newspaper girl with him, so I didn't get to speak to him that much."

"Hmm, is that so?" Scarlet applied some red lipstick. "You know something?" She blotted her lips, "I think you're lying."

Verna's eyes widened, "And why is that?"

Scarlet walked over to her and crossed her arms over her chest, "Rufus wouldn't spend his time with someone like that. You must be some rich person who bought her way into going to this event with him."

Verna let out a small laugh, "I assure you I'm not rich. I'm just a middle class girl."

"Hmm, unlikely," Scarlet raised her hand and grabbed onto Verna's mask.

Verna gasped as she felt it being tugged away. She raised her hand and slugged Scarlet in the chin with her fist. Once Scarlet fell to the ground, Verna held her mask to her face and ran out of the bathroom. She ran into another girl and fell to the floor, her mask with it.

"Ah! Are you Rufus's date?" The girl questioned.

Verna looked up at the blonde and nodded her head before grabbing her mask and tying it back into place. Elena looked at her with a look of shock.

"You're the newspaper girl!" She whispered quietly. "Heidegger's after you!"

Verna stood up quickly and backed away from her, "And so is Palmer and now Scarlet…And maybe you."

"Oh! No! I report to Rufus before I report to Heidegger! He wanted to make sure nothing happened…Wait, why is Scarlet after you?"

"I punched her," Verna looked at the Turk, "Let's go."

Elena laughed and followed Verna quickly, "I know a few people who will be jealous that you did that!" She looked at the president waiting near a wall. "President!"

Rufus looked over and narrowed his eyes at the looks on their faces. They were in a hurry to get out of there. "What happened?"

"She punched Scarlet!" Elena laughed.

Verna smiled sheepishly, "She tried to take my mask off."

"My, my," Rufus ran a hand through his hair. Scarlet was going to be furious with him. "You really need to stop this habit of punching my employees and myself, Verna." He looked towards the restroom and noticed Scarlet with a swollen lip. "Not that I can complain, it just gives me an excuse to leave. Elena, stall Scarlet."

"Yes, sir!" Elena ran over to Scarlet.

"Come one," Rufus grabbed Verna's hand and began to lead her out of the area, maneuvering throughout the crowd. "Not this way!" Rufus stopped suddenly, causing Verna to run into him. "Other way!"

Verna couldn't help the grin on her face. She felt like a child running away from her parents when she was in trouble for something silly. The smile on Rufus's face made her smile even more. This night, which she was dreading, was something that she was actually enjoying. Rufus stopped and pushed Verna against a wall and moved close to her. Her face turned red as she looked up at him. His eyes followed Scarlet as she passed the two of them. Elena was running after her.

"That was a close one," Rufus sighed and looked down at Verna. "Let's get out of here before she finds us."

"Right," Verna followed him out of the building quickly.

Once the two were outside they both let out a sigh of relief. Verna let out a small laugh as she looked towards the building.

"That was fun," Verna looked over at Rufus, "Thanks for getting me out of there."

"Don't thank me yet," Rufus looked alarm and dragged Verna over to the limo we took. "She's coming out now."

Verna looked back at Scarlet storming over to them. So much for Elena stalling her. She climbed into the limo with Rufus close behind her.

"Drive!" Rufus ordered at the driver. The limo pulled away leaving Scarlet in the middle of the street stomping her feet.

Once the female manager was out of sight Rufus gave out a small laugh, causing Verna to speak, "You should laugh more." Rufus raised an eyebrow in her direction. "It lets people know that you're not a bad guy."

"Oh? And what makes you think I'm not a bad guy?" Rufus questioned. His entire demeanor changed making Verna feel slightly uncomfortable. "I might have saved you from your death and kept my managers from getting to you, but that doesn't mean I'm good in anyway."

"What do you mea-!?" Veran was suddenly pushed onto her back by Rufus.

"What if I wanted something in return?" He whispered in her ear as he pressed his body against hers. Her eyes widened at the situation she was in. "Could it have ever past through your mind that I might want to take advantage of all of the debt you've built up? You owe me something, Verna."

"No," tears built up in Verna's eyes, he was invading her personal space again. "Stop this!"

Rufus smirked from above her, "I have all the money and the power in the world; you could live a life of luxury if you let this happen, Verna."

"No!" Verna shrieked. She slammed her head up. A mind splitting pain erupted from her skull as she collided her head with Rufus's.

Rufus fell backwards clutching his head. He hissed out of the pain. Verna scampered away from Rufus to the far side of the limo. She couldn't jump out while it was moving, that'd be suicide. She rested her throbbing head onto her knees as silent tears streamed down her face.

Rufus looked at the girl as she shoulder shook ever so slightly. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "I wasn't actually going to do anything, Verna." He scoffed and looked out the window, "I just wanted to test you."

"Test me in what?" She snapped back.

"To see if you had standards," Rufus crossed his arms across his chest. "I apologize for my actions. You do have standards."

"I prefer a woman who knows how to dress herself, and not look like a prostitute, and who has some actual standards."