Preamble:

Once again I am flattered by the positive response to this story, upon seeing it shared on Tumblr. It's incredibly encouraging, thank you!

The Human Spirit. The only way for someone like Yuffie to reach the Healen Lodge, she was certain, was to follow what was left of the old Midgar-Kalm Highway past its terminus and continue in the direction of Chocobo Bill's famous ranch. Partway through the Green Valley, a winding road cut by unseen trucks took her south to the Mythril Mountains, up to the uncreatively-named Cliff Forest. The rocky scenery, she'd heard, had been a nature preserve by the Grand Duchy of Kalm, when that kingdom still existed. Even today, there cliffs were eerily empty, devoid of landmarks beyond the hardy cliff oaks, trickling pools of ground water that ran through from the higher-elevation rivers on the other side of the mountain range, and a few unassuming aluminum-sided buildings.

That had been the Kalm Cliff Resort when Shinra built it sometime before she was born. At some point, the holiday resort became a full-time sanatorium for well-off denizens of Midgar's plates, who suffered from the sake illnesses as the slums but had the money to do something about it besides emigrate. After Meteorfall, Shinra's Science and Research Department set up an emergency relief camp for corporate employees. Then something had else happened, and the sanatorium had switched hands within Shinra. Apparently, all but the worse cases of Geostigma were sent back to their hometowns, Kalm or Junon. By the time Cloud Strife was summoned by Rufus Shinra, he described the whole facility as practically deserted.

It was a lot less deserted now.

An obnoxiously loud, low-flying twin-engine helicopter made its presence known as it passed over while she was traversing the narrow steel-girder bridge and back onto the winding road. It was still audible a few minutes later she reached the outermost security fence that wrapped around the tiered cliff face, with a lone sentry standing outside a tiny excuse for a guard shack neatly cut into the rock. During the day, the only thing that stood out from the checkpoint was the dark red, almost scarlet uniform of the sentry and the similarly colored military flag adjoining the metal gate.

Bringing her off-road scooter to a halt, Yuffie leaned over the handlebars and gave the armed sentry a practiced, unkind look. "Yuffie Kisaragi. I'm here to see your boss. Call them, they'll know me."

The young sentry gave her a suitably skeptical frown before reaching for the telephone inside his shack, so she kept staring at him: that long, double-breasted greatcoat made of wool gabardine dyed dark red, practically scarlet, worn over navy blue riding breeches and leather jackboots and under a leather Sam Browne belt. A matching flat-topped kepi with a dark brown plastic visor and a small silver diamond cockade pinned to it. Brown shoulder straps and metal rank insignia sewn into the coat's folded collar, identifying him as a 2nd lieutenant, near the bottom of officer hierarchy in Midgar's army. All details that had stuck with her from her childhood, when a chunk of her education in Wutai had one clear purpose: to prepare her for the next war against the foreign invaders from the East, whatever they called themselves. Midgar. Junon. Shinra. Before she'd ever stepped foot on the Eastern Continent, she'd learn more than she ever wanted to about the enemy in the war that never happened.

The sentry turned back to her and gave an unconvinced nod before letting her pass through. The rough ride up the trail to the resort's main building took her pass more and more soldiers, almost all in the same uniform, preoccupied with some task or another. At the end of the trail, most seemed fixated on a pair of off-road military cars with their hoods raised. Some others were standing in a circle, smoking, when one replaced his cap and broke off from the group, walking in the direction of another one of the largely-identical unmarked cylindrical buildings that made up the resort. The helicopter could be heard, but not seen. One was waiting by a stairway leading to what she knew was the high-security area. Unlike the sentry at the gate, this one was older and missing his assault rifle, instead only having a holstered pistol and a baton on his belt. His rank insignia showed he was a captain.

"Ms. Kisaragi, if you'll follow me." He had an unmistakable Midgar accent. Barret could probably tell me where in Midgar if he were here. Then again, if Barret were here she expected he'd punch the captain in the face. That was probably giving him too little credit though, AVALANCHE had disbanded three years ago. Dropping the kickstand, she climbed off her bike before pulling large travel bag with a single shoulder strap over and standing still, arms behind her head and a grin on her face.

The captain looked skeptically at her luggage but said nothing before turning. "I don't want you guys touching it," she announced to no-one in particular before following him up the steps. He gave no response, only stopping at the end of the stairway a door which he slowly opened with a metal keycard hanging on a lanyard. "Where's your boss?" she asked after the door's locking mechanism beeped.

"The president will be with you shortly," he promised in a tone of voice that made it clear he didn't want to speak with her any more than necessary. Inside the round, air-conditioned room, with its hardwood floors, paneled walls, and blinds drawn, she leered at him.

"Have we met before?"

To her surprise, the captain visibly stopped and turned to face her. In the dim indoor light, she studied his face: a combination of age, twice as old as her at least, and hard-living, beaten by time. He might've been ten years younger than he looked, but severe, grey-blue eyes looking out from the shadow of his visor cap made it difficult to say for certain. They all look like that, she surmised. All like damaged goods.

"Once, at least. During your first visit here, I believe."

Yuffie's brown eyes widened. "Huh. Can't say that I remember."

"I imagine you wouldn't. That's the thing about military uniforms," he told her as he closed the door behind her with another beep. The relatively large circular chamber had been informally bifurcated with one half serving as a sitting room, where the captain stiffly stopped by a closed door only to stare at her. She was still waiting for him to finish his statement when a much larger, younger man entered, a short giant compared to her in a black-blue suit and a white blouse.

Once in the room, Rude of the Turks seemed to locked eyes with the captain who, to Yuffie's surprise, saluted, hand to the cap's visor, before leaving and shutting the door after him. She gave an unimpressed look before letting herself fall back against the beige paneled wall, arms crossed. Next to her, a large, framed standard was fixed to the wall: a red diamond with a section missing, two stylized kanji, and the words Shin-Ra Electric Power Company below.

Never an introduction. "What's with the railway company staff?"

Rude, now standing close enough to envelope her in his shadow, raised an eyebrow though immediately lowered it. Yuffie speculated on his thoughts: Actually, back in Midgar, Shinra ran all the railways, and all their employees wore the same uniforms.

He confirmed as much, his sunglasses flashing at her briefly. "The military's taking on normal patrol duties when we're busy," he answered, surprising her.

"Busy with what?" she pressed.

As expected, Rude gave no indication of even hearing the question, but gestured with a large open palm at her luggage, which she dutifully pulled over her shoulder. "Go ahead, it isn't a bomb, if I was gonna' kill your boss, you wouldn't know. I'm a ninja, or did you forget?"

She'd hope to coax some reaction out of Rude in the process, but instead he easily picked up the traveling case for the TC-5500, undid the metal snaps, and glanced at the hardware inside. "It's a tape recorder. You know, you talk into the mic and it writes it onto plastic tape, like magic?"

"If she were intending to clandestinely record our conversation, I don't think the W.R.O.'s spymaster would use a stereo tape recorder designed before she was born to do it," a prim, precise voice announced from the opposite end of the sitting room. Emerging out of the shadows around a corner, with one hand leaning on polished wooden cane and in a white three-piece suit, wobbled Rufus Shinra. The world's richest man came to a stop near the middle of the room and stood up to his full height, easing off the cane. Rude was already bringing a chair over from the other side of the room.

"How's the leg?"

"Better in the summer," he told her in that off-handed, unconcerned tone that made distinguishing between truth and fiction pointless. He followed her eyes to his cane, which he held up, revealing the polished silver head. "It beats a wheelchair though."

"You must be getting older," she taunted him.

"We should all be so fortunate," Rufus replied, sitting on the chair Rude had brought.

The public record said Rufus was born in 1982, making him almost a decade older than Yuffie. In fact, when he'd first appeared to the public on television, she swore that he was younger than Cloud, whom she had met not much earlier. Getting blown up probably hasn't helped with that.

Passing his cane off to Rude, Rufus placed his pale hands on his long, white slacks. "It's been a while, hasn't it, Yuffie Kisaragi?"

A large, toothy grin returned to Yuffie's face and she flopped onto the light-colored couch in front of the corporate standard. "Has it? 'Thing is, I've been busy."

"I'm sure you have. What can I do for the W.R.O.'s top spy, or are you here on more…academic business?" he asked sarcastically, his own blue eyes drifting towards the tape recorder.

In her conversations with the head of the company that bore his family name, Yuffie had always found that it was impossible not to hear the tone of obliging busyness interrupted for her. She originally found it endearing, than infuriating. Now she just thought it was strange. If you want something from Rufus Shinra, you need to just ask him. "The Organization is doing fine without me. By the way, Reeve sends his greetings."

Rufus gave one of his polite, closed-mouth laughs that went on a second too long to seem sincere. As the last head of the Shinra's Department of Urban Development, Reeve had worked for Rufus for the entirety of his presidency, or at least, his presidency in Midgar. She didn't think the two men had met since the day Rufus was supposed to have died, but she didn't rule out the possibility.

After all, Rufus visited Reeve's mother before she passed away. "So, I'm working on a personal project."

"And I take it you either want permission to interview me, or my employees or…formal employees," Rufus concluded quickly. Yuffie tried to hide her dismay. "That's something of an area of expertise for you, after all," he explained, rising to his feet and keeping Rude back with a gesture.

She wanted to reply, but instead cocked her head unhappily to one side. "Really, the giveaway is in this," he said, waddling over to her luggage at the foot of the couch where Rude had left it. "A TC-5500—a rather specific piece of equipment for a rather specific purpose."

He turned back to her. "And I doubt you've become a deejay."

Yuffie imitated his sarcastic laugh.

"So when you ask for an unspecified favor, what you're actually wanting is an interview with, among others presumably, the head of the Shinra Corporation." With his right hand, he reached forward and pressed down on one unpowered switch which a satisfying, mechanical click. Rufus looked up at the ceiling. "But what about? I doubt you're that interested in how my knees are after almost two years in a wheelchair."

"Maybe I want to just know you personally. 'Who is Rufus Shinra?'" She was rewarded by a mild look of surprise as Rufus glanced at her as she kicked her legs up and down like a child.

"The man who never bleeds nor cries." He flipped the leather case's led shut over the recorder and slowly returned back to his chair. "Seeing how you've seen me do both, you probably know everything there is to know about the man called Rufus Shinra. No, nothing so impractical as that."

Yuffie laughed again, either at the lie or the attempt at self-effacing modesty. They both wondered which. "How're Cloud and Tifa?"

The laughter stopped, and Yuffie pouted before answering. "The same. Bar business in Edge is slowing down, maybe because of the redevelopment, or people just leaving in general, but the courier business has been taking off. Tifa has started taking some of the deliveries."

"That's good." There were traces of serious and sincerity in that. Rude shifted awkwardly.

"Barret, well…you know Barret." Rufus gave a nod. "Cid's busy with the air fleet."

"And Vincent Valentine has chosen to…keep to himself." Rufus rested his back in the chair. "We do keep tabs on everyone formerly at General Affairs, even if they left thirty years ago."

He gave an unexpected sigh. "Deepground is still on our minds, as it should be. Another part of Shinra's legacy to the Planet during the Mako Age. That's what you've come for, haven't you?"

There's probably no point trying to keep anything from him. Not anything to do with his company, anyway. Instead, she responded with another question. "You know how T.N.N. broke the Deepground story before the Kalm and Edge kidnappings started? How did that happen?"

Rufus glanced up at Rude, then at the tape recorder, as if posing an inquiry. Yuffie ignored it and continued waiting. "You know we've tried to do our due diligence with the free media, especially after our own news affiliate disbanded during Meteorfall. Responsible freedom of information is our official policy position. As a favor to the press, certain details regarding the Midgar Central Pillar and alleged locales below Sector Zero were disclosed with tactic understandings."

"Tacit understandings?" she repeated.

Rufus discreetly gestured towards Rude, who spoke. "For a time, the company was performing excavations at the Central Pillar…"

"For a time."

"Regarding the Central Pillar, yes, for a time," Rufus interrupted a little harshly before nodding at Rude.

"…related to the Deepground unit. This work was conducted under the highest possible secrecy due out of a concern for public safety."

"Public safety?" Yuffie intoned.

"What else would you call it? We had unfinished business," Rufus added quickly. "T.N.N.'s investigations were completely independent of our work. Coincidences like this happen more often than you might realize."

His jaw clenched briefly. "We didn't think they'd locate our excavation work. We didn't think they'd even reach the Central Pillar, much less the excavated areas, frankly. I know what you're thinking: we don't blame the press. Obviously, we underestimated them, just like we underestimated Deepground itself."

I can't tell if he regrets it or not. "You know, I can't tell if you actually regret it or not."

Rufus' leaned towards her in his chair. "Of course, the corporation has publicly expressed remorse over the whole affair. Not to mention the medical aid to the affected, and our work with the W.R.O.."

She anxiously leaned back at him. "You could do something to make up for what your corporation didn't officially mean to do."

"As president and chief executive of the Shinra Corporation, I could," he replied coolly.

"But you won't, will you? You'll just keep talking at me because maybe you feel a little guilty, but more likely you just like hearing your own voice, and poor Rude here is so shy."

Rufus leaned back in his chair, face in an open sneer. It was a rarity, even for him. His posture shifted, like a cinema villain who ought to be leering with a cigarette between two fingers. But then sneer faded and that smooth, white face came to rest against one hand as he sat. "As Shinra's president, you may ask me any question you'd like. I may even answer them." He tilted his head. "Off the record, of course."

She frowned. The tape recorder wasn't even plugged in, much less switched on. "You mean 'off the recording'," she corrected him. For a moment Rufus's eyes nearly rolled, but he just twitched instead.

"Where were all the people who knew about Deep-…" she began.

Loudly enough to almost make her jump from the couch, Rufus cleared his throat multiple times. "I think we're done here, Rude."

The Turk stirred slightly. "Yes sir."

Yuffie was on her feet, fist clenched, read to hurl an objection when Rufus put a hand out in front of her. "Don't I have another item on my agenda this afternoon?"

"Uh…" Under his sunglasses, Rude might've looked stumped at the question.

"That's right, I do." He turned back to her. "This meeting, between myself and a visiting representative of the W.R.O., has finished. That leaves me speaking with Yuffie Kisaragi, civilian and private citizen from Wutai."

He turned again. "Isn't that correct, Rude?"

"Yes, Mr. President," he answered while returning his cane to him.

"I would've liked to have a longer conversation with Yuffie Kisaragi from Wutai," Rufus explained, a strange, even disconcerting wistfulness in his voice. "It was unfortunate, what with her schedule, we didn't speak long before she left through that unlocked door behind me."

Yuffie's eyes flickered at the other metal door, then back at Rufus, both hands propped up his cane between his slender legs. It was evident he was waiting on her now. "Are you waiting for something like 'If it isn't my favorite member of AVALANCHE, Yuffie Kisaragi, Master Ninja'?" he asked impatiently.

"I liked that last part," she mumbled with a smirk. "I used to call you the Shinra heir apparent. I remember you hated that," she remembered.

"Only because it was technically incorrect. You and I never met until I'd already succeeded my predecessor," he slyly corrected her.

Or because of President Shinra's other sons. "So, before I left through that door, did I have a chance to actually ask you a meaningful question?" She expected the sneer to come back, but instead Rufus stared at her with those cold blue eyes, their hostility dialed down moderately, beckoning her to continue. "Why? Why do they keep coming back?"

The world's richest man smiled at her, a smile so fatherly she wouldn't have believed him capable of it. "Because what Shinra is, is the human spirit. In good and in ill. You know what we are, you, I, Rude over there? We're the orphaned children of neglectful parents. So we raised ourselves by manipulating the physical world to our whims."

Yuffie stared back at him, visibly perplexed. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, Rufus burst into loud laughter, almost causing her to jump again. He continued laughing, his shoulders rocking in his chair, before settling down to a smile.

"People need to work. More accurately, they need food, they need shelter, they need medical attention, as I'm very familiar with. All those things cost money. Despite the copious amount of funding I've given them, the World Regenesis Organization—they should've listened to me and avoided that terrible name—has not attempted to particularly change that arrangement. They could institute some model of universal income, or even just print their own currency, but they've done neither. And they're not particularly proficient at employing people…beyond very capable scientists and their paramilitary forces, of course."

Yuffie felt herself blush. Rufus gestured at the framed company standard hanging over the couch. "You see that?"

She frowned. "It looks like any other Shinra Company logo." Though they were notably absent from Healen Lodge itself, even today, you could find them all over the ruins Midgar, fading with time at an inadequate pace, of the same design or some minute variation.

"You're right. That particular one hung from the wall at the Junon Main Office, it was donated by our…representatives there, in the city government, sometime after the fall of Midgar." He looked back at Yuffie, now making a particularly distasteful face. "Tell me, have you ever wondered why on that logotype, and so many others, my surname is most prominently written in your language?"

Yuffie returned her face to normal and stared at the framed logo. "Actually, I have." Though he hadn't said as much, Rufus was referred to Wutaian—though really, it was academic knowledge that Wutai hadn't invented the language, but co-opted it from a neighboring country they had conquered more than a thousand years ago. "And why your old man had a Wutaian name."

Rufus smiled. "Maybe one day I'll tell you in an interview."

"You and Hojo."

His smile faded. "Yes, myself and Professor Hojo."

Author's Notes:

This chapter, until not long before it was published, was going to be nearly twice as long (namely, it would feature the second half of Yuffie's visit to Healen Lodge-these notes might not be for readers who're shunning chapter previews or very mild spoilers, apologies for that). That would've put it more in the style of my other major works, where the average chapter runs around 10k words, excluding notes. I think I've done both myself and the audience of a favor for making the cut, and if anyone is actually eager for it, it won't be that long before the next update.

To this day, I have not seen a detailed "normal" (in other words, non-super-deformed/chibi world model) sketch of the red-coated Shinra military officer/police/railway employee, despite being one of the most visible NPCs in the whole of Final Fantasy VII. On top of that, unlike the Shinra infantry (who had battle models), they have yet to appear to any modern sequel. It's pretty infuriating and actually leaves me to suspect Square-Enix might just silently "retcon" the design out of the game. They are absent from the remake demo footage thusfar, despite being the first enemies subdued by AVALANCHE upon their arrival in Sector 1. So I get to guess what they look like (based on 20th century military dress).

The relationship between Rufus and Yuffie is something entirely important that I really didn't anticipate being. Shinra's titular head, of course, is very fun to write, more so than Cloud at least. In the original concept, Rufus was a character of some importance, and Yuffie maybe not even that, but the notion of them and their relationship is really owed to Dirge of Cerberus in what is maybe one of that video game's less silly revelations. Rufus speaks of the "Mako Age", as something that has (appropriately) passed, a pretty obvious reference to our Atomic or Nuclear Age (though there is no formal consensus as to whether or not, as of 2019, we still live that era or not). And I'd like to explore the use of Japanese, versus English, within the setting, from the Shinra logotype to the massive Kanji on the side of each of Midgar's eight reactors, but I might be getting ahead of myself here. In any case, please let me know your thoughts and thanks for reading!