A Familiar Place
Who: Rufus, Bahamut
When: Directly after he arrives in Junon
Location: Junon
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Rufus is visited by The Ghost of Leaders Present a surprising guest.
Rufus didn't blink an eye at the soft click of the door closing behind him as Aleksandra presumably took up a post on the other side. It had been, perhaps, an abrupt end to their conversation, though there was nothing more to be said. She would have her duties to attend to, and he his. At the moment, that included becoming settled in this location. Thankfully, this facility had remained under the control of the WRO, and it hadn't been difficult to arrange moving Shinra's base here. Though it with some irony that he regarding the room in which he was standing.
This had been his office, once. And now it would be again, separated by a few years that seemed like a lifetime. Dark Nation wandered about the floor, sniffing at things with a sort of perplexed familiarity that Rufus could only sympathize with.
The last time he'd stood in this office, Shinra owned the world, Midgar was intact, and Cloud Strife was an enemy. But here he was still preparing for a showdown with Sephiroth. Perhaps there were some things that simply never changed.
He moved to sit at the desk, eyes scanning over unfamiliar items left by someone who apparently had made use of the space in the meantime. He was going to have some reorganizing to do. But that could wait, for the moment. There were more important things to worry about for the moment. Namely, he had planned on checking in with the exploration teams. Reeve had given Tseng an update on the group in Wutai, but there was no word on those who had gone to the City of the Ancients aside from a report that Veld wasn't answering his phone, which on its own didn't seem to bode well. He stared at the phone on the desk before picking it up and calling Veld, and upon predictably not receiving an answer, calling Elfe instead.
Setting the phone down again, he signed quietly. Yet another mess, though for now he would have to leave that in Elfe's hands. With any luck, the rest of the members of that team would be found without further incident. He could hope, at least.
That aside, he found his thoughts drifting back to Hojo's words. Yes, yes. A female in a suit. Blonde. Who else could it be, but... no. That didn't make sense. Elena would have had no reason to be there, much less assisting in Sephiroth's escape. It was possible, perhaps, that she might have seen an opportunity to act as a spy, but it seemed unthinkable that she would have been able to jump into such a scenario without planning it in advance, or that she would have gone without alerting either Rufus or Tseng to this plan if she had known in advance. If it was indeed her, then that only left that she'd betrayed them, and between years of her loyalty and his knowledge of the experiences she'd had with the Remnants in the past, he found that equally implausible. So that left the option of it not having been her. Someone impersonating her, perhaps? But... why? And in any case, why hadn't she been in contact by now?
He learned forward to rest his elbow on the desk and his face in his hand. This had not been a good day...
When: Directly after he arrives in Junon
Location: Junon
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Rufus is visited by The Ghost of Leaders Present a surprising guest.
Rufus didn't blink an eye at the soft click of the door closing behind him as Aleksandra presumably took up a post on the other side. It had been, perhaps, an abrupt end to their conversation, though there was nothing more to be said. She would have her duties to attend to, and he his. At the moment, that included becoming settled in this location. Thankfully, this facility had remained under the control of the WRO, and it hadn't been difficult to arrange moving Shinra's base here. Though it with some irony that he regarding the room in which he was standing.
This had been his office, once. And now it would be again, separated by a few years that seemed like a lifetime. Dark Nation wandered about the floor, sniffing at things with a sort of perplexed familiarity that Rufus could only sympathize with.
The last time he'd stood in this office, Shinra owned the world, Midgar was intact, and Cloud Strife was an enemy. But here he was still preparing for a showdown with Sephiroth. Perhaps there were some things that simply never changed.
He moved to sit at the desk, eyes scanning over unfamiliar items left by someone who apparently had made use of the space in the meantime. He was going to have some reorganizing to do. But that could wait, for the moment. There were more important things to worry about for the moment. Namely, he had planned on checking in with the exploration teams. Reeve had given Tseng an update on the group in Wutai, but there was no word on those who had gone to the City of the Ancients aside from a report that Veld wasn't answering his phone, which on its own didn't seem to bode well. He stared at the phone on the desk before picking it up and calling Veld, and upon predictably not receiving an answer, calling Elfe instead.
Setting the phone down again, he signed quietly. Yet another mess, though for now he would have to leave that in Elfe's hands. With any luck, the rest of the members of that team would be found without further incident. He could hope, at least.
That aside, he found his thoughts drifting back to Hojo's words. Yes, yes. A female in a suit. Blonde. Who else could it be, but... no. That didn't make sense. Elena would have had no reason to be there, much less assisting in Sephiroth's escape. It was possible, perhaps, that she might have seen an opportunity to act as a spy, but it seemed unthinkable that she would have been able to jump into such a scenario without planning it in advance, or that she would have gone without alerting either Rufus or Tseng to this plan if she had known in advance. If it was indeed her, then that only left that she'd betrayed them, and between years of her loyalty and his knowledge of the experiences she'd had with the Remnants in the past, he found that equally implausible. So that left the option of it not having been her. Someone impersonating her, perhaps? But... why? And in any case, why hadn't she been in contact by now?
He learned forward to rest his elbow on the desk and his face in his hand. This had not been a good day...