A/N: The first two chapters were revised in May '18, so if you haven't reread them yet now would be a good time to give them a read so you know what's going on.

Rupert knew he had Rhys' full support, his ace in the hole engineer who could build anything he put his mind to. They'd need other engineers to work under him, machinists as well, but that would come in time. First, he needed to secure someone who worked well with mako. Bugenhagen immediately came to mind - the man had studied the Lifestream and mako intently for decades. There was no better person to ask.

He found the scientist standing in the materia room, staring at the rows of processing chambers. "Bugenhagen?"

"Ah, Rupert." There was something off about his smile, and it didn't reach his eyes. "I was hoping to speak to your father before he left."

"Oh? He's still on the property," Rupert said. "Do you mind if we talk first? I had something I was hoping to ask for your assistance on..."

Bugenhagen held a hand up to stop him there. "Unless you plan to stop this, I'm afraid I'm not going to be any use to you."

"…what?" Rupert frowned. "Stop… what?"

"The materia processing. Forcing an unnatural use of the Planet's power to further your pointless wars," he said. "I can't support that. The Planet shouldn't be used this way."

Rupert stared at him, utterly bewildered. He knew Bugenhagen had opposed, of course, but… "Are you resigning?"

"I'm going to have to," he said. "Unless your father will see reason on the matter."

There was no way, even if Rupert had asked him to, that Graham Shinra was going to stop manufacturing materia now that it was proven a viable, reliable option. "You… do know it doesn't just help the war? Materia is used extensively in rural areas. Setting fires. Freezing things. Heating and cooling homes. Healing people. This is bigger than war, the war isn't going to last forever."

"And natural materia has done the job perfectly well. What you've made is an insult to nature. There is a reason it doesn't work right; I was there for the testing, I know you can only get a single spell out of each materia. It doesn't level properly because it's cut off from the Lifestream during its forced, unnatural development," Bugenhagen said. "No good can come of this, Rupert. Materia is a gift from the Planet, and you're taking liberties that aren't for humanity to take."

"I think it's a little late for reservations," Rupert said. "It's a done deal. You don't take technology back, Bugenhagen. It doesn't work that way. It's in the world, it's being used, it's improving lives."

"And above all, it's turning profit, isn't it?" Bugenhagen smiled thinly. "I shouldn't be surprised. I just hope you come to see reason before you damage the planet with your manipulations."

"I'm not hurting anybody," Rupert protested. "This is good. I'm helping people."

"You genuinely believe that," Bugenhagen said, watching him a moment and shaking his head. "You're wrong, but I can see I won't be changing your mind. So yes, you're getting my resignation. I'll go inform your father."

"Fine, do as you please." Rupert said, scowling as the old man floated out. Clearly, Bugenhagen was too stuck in his ways to handle the future. Which was fine. He knew exactly who to ask.

"I appreciate you meeting with me, Grimoire, I know your time is rather in-demand these days," Rupert said. "How's everything going with your degree?"

"I'm about half way through getting my doctorate," Grimoire said, sighing. "Lots of work, that, but hopefully it'll pass by quickly. I've been lucky that a lot of it I don't actually have to sit classes for."

"I'm certain that helps, yes," Rupert agreed. "I was wondering if you might have time to help me out with something. For pay, of course."

Grimoire arched a brow, pausing a beat before picking up his iced tea. "Go on."

"Rhys and I made a discovery of something we're calling 'mako energy,'" Rupert said. "He can fill you in on the specifics, but essentially what we've discovered is the ability to generate electricity by processing raw mako."

Grimoire stared at him a moment. "Generate electricity."

"That's right." Rupert nodded, a hint of a grin starting on his lips. "So you see where I'm going with this, then. We're talking a clean, infinitely sustainable energy source."

"That's amazing," Grimoire said. "But what can I do to help with that?"

"You're the closest thing I've got to an expert in mako," Rupert said. "I need someone to work with Rhys and make sure we can process it safely. Electricity's no good if we all die of mako poisoning."

"You have a fair point," Grimoire agreed, humming thoughtfully. "But I don't know that I'm the right man for the job, Rupert, that's not even in the direction of my field."

"It's not your field, no - it's not anyone's field, this is entirely new," Rupert said. "But you have the qualifications. You have the background to make sense of this."

Grimoire frowned, shaking his head. "I can see where you're coming from but I really don't think I'm the right man for the job. Bugenhagen, maybe -"

"He wants nothing to do with the project," Rupert said immediately, cutting him off. "Grimoire, I'm not expecting perfection, but you've already worked with Rhys and you already know more than anyone else I could ask. You can figure this out. Get Gast in on it, make it a team project. You can do this, I know you can."

"Faith is not enough to make me the person you need for this," Grimoire said.

"But you are, I know you are," Rupert insisted. "I've seen your work. You were able to help us figure out the materia, you can help us work out the mako. Please, Grimoire. This fascinated you earlier, what's changed?"

"Fascination isn't… Rupert, despite popular opinion I am not entirely driven by impulse," Grimoire said. "I have a doctorate to finish, and a wife and child to support."

"A wife and child you'd be closer to, if you were working with us in Rakheim," Rupert pointed out. "Within hours of the ocean, and you could be on a boat over in no time. And frankly? So long as you work on it I don't have to have you there the whole time, either. You can fax me update between working on your other projects."

Grimoire stared at him a long moment. "I'll tell you what, I'll look into it. I'll give Rhys a call, and hear out what he knows already. What plans may be in the works. If it sounds like something I might have ideas on, then I'm willing to see where it takes us."

"That's all I ask," Rupert said.

"And I'll be compensated for whatever time I spend as a consultant, hm?" Grimoire arched a brow at him pointedly.

"Arrangements will be made," Rupert assured him. "So long as you put in the work, you will be appropriately compensated for your time."

Grimoire smiled faintly. "Then it's a deal."

Between Rhys, Grimoire and Gast, the mako energy project slowly but surely began to take shape from a nebulous idea to a concrete possibility. But one thing that became clear quite quickly was the inability to actually put it into action in Rakheim. They needed access to land rich in Lifestream, ideally poised over a flow but in the least somewhere they could drill for it. Which meant buying land, because he didn't think anyone would lease allowing them to drill like that.

There was land to be bought, certainly, and he already had a few sites in mind. Something in the Mideel area of the Southern Continent would have been wonderful - good weather, a beautiful location, level, fertile ground where you only had to worry about clearing the area and putting up a perimeter to deter any of the local wildlife. Of course, it was also expensive, more expensive than he was ready to immediately put out for before he'd seen the process in action. Which meant they needed somewhere less expensive, and brought him to an area that he was sure most businessmen would never even consider.

Nibelheim.

Growing up in the foothills of the Nibel mountain range, Rupert knew that the mountains hid mako springs in their cave networks; they'd trawled many of them for materia, back before they'd developed the manufacturing process, so he knew they were available despite the appearance of infertile ground. It was plenty fertile, it was just frozen. And that was something he could work with.

Nibelheim, much like Marek, was small - a village really - and they struggled between the harsh weather and sluggish economy. The thought that ShinRa would be bringing in jobs and reliable incomes was enough to have their mayor willing to cut Rupert a deal on a rare stretch of mostly level land just outside the town, and give drilling permissions on a portion of the mountain not far from where they'd located a mako spring.

There was no room to put housing up in the mountains, so Rupert had a building constructed on the land just outside of town, a massive three story building that sat on top of an extensive tunneling system that would allow them access to the mountain without having to deal with near so much exposure to the elements. Unfortunately, most of the building supplies were large enough that they were going to have to be machined in Rakheim and flown in, and expenses were starting to add up quickly. A thousand gil was a tremendous start, but it wasn't maintainable. Not when you considered the combined costs of buying the land, construction and ongoing payment of employees. He needed income of some sort, because he certainly wasn't about to ask his father for a loan and didn't want to owe a bank. That left him with one option.

Investors.

And he knew exactly where to start.