Rufus paced back and forth along the length of his desk. "I don't like it," he said, for what had to be the eighth time now. "The Sister Ray has never been tested against an actual target. For all we know, it could destroy the entire city in a massive explosion when Hojo attempts to fire it. And this monster, marching on the city, tell me again what we know of it?"

Tseng cleared his throat, clearly doing his best to hide his frustration at the repeated request. "As I've said, we don't know enough. Except for the initial assault on the primary reactor, there have been almost no survivors from the other attacks. My only conclusion is that while we initially disregarded the panicked reports from that incident, it seems more and more plausible that the monster is actually capable of wiping out a target in the blink of an eye."

"That's . . . I mean you can't be serious, right?" Reno demanded. "That level of power is just insane. Avalanche has to be bluffing to try and get this war to end in their favor."

"How do you explain all the destruction left in its wake then?" Elena asked. Her usual cheerfulness was notably absent, her tone instead more of a gloomy sadness.

The room was silent for a moment before Rufus pressed on. "I believe them. The pieces fit together too cleanly for it to be a lie. Plus, this is Avalanche we're talking about. They've been trying to undermine us for years now, and all of a sudden they want to help? The only way that makes any sense is they think their home is in real danger."

Rude cleared his throat as he straightened his shades. "So what's the problem then? The President agreed to work together."

"Yeah, and they said they have an army of magic users they're going to throw against it too," Reno chimed in.

"That's the problem," Rufus said sharply, halting his pacing and spinning to face them. "You know the President. Does a deal like this seem like something he would just agree to? It's out of the question," he continued, answering his own question before any of the Turks had a chance. "No, there's something else going on here."

"You think he's planning to betray them, again?" Tseng asked.

Rufus drummed his fingers on the desk. "The old man has gotten lost in his delusional obsessions. I can't help but feel that the direction he's forcefully dragging us along isn't one that will benefit Midgar in the long run. Something has to change."

Tseng gave him a long look in response. "What . . . are you saying?"

"Nothing." Rufus stepped away from his desk, even as a half-formed idea slowly developed in the back of his mind. "I'm going to have a follow-up conversation about what exactly the President is planning. We need to be prepared to deal with any potential fallout. I'll be relying on all of your expertise in the coming days, more heavily than usual."

The four Turks all nodded as he made his way to the door and left his office. As he walked down the hallway, he contemplated what the next steps were. First, he needed to figure out what exactly was going on, then he'd come up with a solution to the problem. His entire life up to this point had been training to one day take over leadership of Shinra. He'd always assumed it was still several years away, more like a far-out future, but already Rufus found himself questioning that. The closer he looked at how things were currently being run, the more he felt like they could be improved.

That wasn't to say he thought he had a solution to everything, but he did think there was a lot of easy, low-hanging fruit to take advantage of. For instance, the President seemed all too willing to ignore the voices of the people. To some extent, Rufus could understand that—it was impossible to please everyone, after all—but dismissive indifference was too far in the wrong direction. There had to be a comfortable middle ground, where the citizens could at least feel like their concerns were being addressed. Which then raised the question of how to get there.

Reaching the foyer of the President's office, Rufus took a deep breath as he stopped in front of the secretary's desk. "I'm here to see him. No appointment, I know."

The woman pulled out a scheduling book without even looking at him and flicked through it for a moment before nodding her head. "He's free for the next hour."

Nodding his thanks, Rufus walked over to the large set of doors and knocked heavily to announce himself.

"Enter."

The President's voice was the same as always—stern, emotionless, and commanding. Rufus pushed the door open and stepped into the spacious office. The room was empty except for the man sitting behind the desk in the center—the wall of windows behind him giving a view out over the city far below.

"Well? What is it?" the President asked as Rufus came to a stop in front of the desk. Cold and to the point, as always.

"I was hoping to talk with you about the recent conversation with Avalanche and the implied declaration of peace with the Cetra that resulted from it. I have to admit, I'm . . . surprised."

The President gave him a steady, unblinking stare. "And what, exactly, has you so surprised?"

"That you're considering peace at all, after everything you've done up to this point. It seemed to me like that was never an option to you. What made you change your mind?"

There was a brief flash of confusion on his face before the President laughed loudly. "Change my mind? You thought I was being serious? I expected better from you, boy, but I suppose you still have much to learn. At least it means I was convincing enough, and that those fools won't suspect anything.

"No, we'll take full advantage of their offer to help protect the city—on the off chance that Weapon truly is as powerful as they seem to think—but then afterward, when they're weakened from the fighting, it should be a simple matter to capture or kill them all. The Ancient will be sent back to Hojo for experimentation and the others will be publicly executed. From there, we can continue towards our Promised Land without the thorn of Avalanche in our side while simultaneously sending a message to any who would dare to seek to replace them."

"But why? These monsters will destroy us all if we don't work together, you heard what they said!"

"What I heard was nothing but lies!" the President shouted, slamming his fist into the desk, his face twisting in rage. "How do you think the Ancients know so much about these so-called Weapons? Because they created them! They control them! Then they come and think they can fool us into working together against them? Don't be ridiculous."

Rufus was struck speechless for a moment, completely shocked at how wrong the President was. "What are you talking about? They came to us looking for help after we already betrayed them the last time! That alone should be enough to show how serious this situation is! If they had the ability to control them, why would one be attacking their own capital?"

"And what proof do we have that one is? Hmm? We have no idea where their capital is, or what is going on there. No, it's clearly a fabrication, spun to make us think they're in the same situation when they clearly aren't. Why would they offer the help of their own soldiers if their city was in danger? Did you not think of that? You should be embarrassed that you fell for such an obvious ploy."

"Those soldiers are here because we're at war. A war that you started seven years ago and one that continues to drag on to this day, costing the lives of far too many people. When was the last time you heard the citizens praising Shinra? Thanking us for what we've done for the city? Are you even aware of how upset they are?"

Leaning back in his chair, the President scoffed loudly. "The chattering of the masses means less than nothing to me. What do they know about what it takes to run a city? To build a future? They have no right to be anything but grateful after everything I've done for them."

The reality of the situation came crashing down on Rufus. He'd always believed, always trusted that this man was capable of seeing the bigger picture, of finding the best way forward to an ideal future. Time and time again, he'd accomplished things like taking down the Barrier that had seemed impossible. But now it was clear that was no longer the case. He was lost, floundering, and in his stubbornness to push on at any cost, he would drag them all down with him until there was nothing left.

"If you're allowed to continue like this . . . it will mean the death of Midgar."

A rare flicker of rage ignited in the President's eyes as he rose to his feet. "How dare you. I am Midgar! This city is nothing without me! If you think that—" He cut off with a gurgle, his eyes shooting wide in shock.

And Rufus sharply withdrew the blade he'd used to impale the President.

"Enough. It's past time Midgar had a new leader."

"What . . . what have you done?" the President forced out. "I am your father. You can't do this to me!"

"Father?" Rufus spat the word. "I never had a father. A leader, a boss, a dictator, I had all of those, but a father? Never."

The President collapsed backward into his chair, his face turning a pale white as his mouth flopped open and closed like a fish out of water. Rufus watched dispassionately as the President's eyes slowly faded and his chest stopped moving. He'd come here knowing this was a possible outcome, of course, but he hadn't been sure what he would feel if he actually did it.

Vengeance? Righteousness? Pity? He'd thought there would have to be something at the very least, even though he'd never cared for the man. But in the end, all he felt was a massive void of nothingness. He'd identified a problem and solved it in the most efficient manner, like a surgeon treating their patient. That's simply all there was to it. He idly wondered if that made him a monster.

He didn't dwell on that thought for very long, though. Pulling out his communication device he swiftly dialed Tseng's number. "There's been a minor incident. I need you and the rest of the Turks to come and clean this up for me."


And another parent bites the dust. FF7 really doesn't have a good track record on that... In this case, Rufus takes things into his own hands, unlike in canon, but I feel like this is something that could have easily happened. This is a pretty short one, but certainly has a lot of impact on what's to come. We're still not sure what Rufus's vision for the future is at this point, but odds are that it's probably better than the President's. Hopefully.

As for what's next, well, we're back to Cloud, and answers for his frustrating behavior will be provided. I hope everyone's looking forward to it!


Next Chapter: Love