It seemed like another dull day for the Twilight Town Police Department's Homicide Squad. Despite the gravity of their job, they rarely had to deal with any murders. Twilight Town was a Pleasantville, really. The worst crime that had been committed in the town recently was a four-year-old pocketing a chocolate when his mother wouldn't buy it for him. The boy probably got a spanking, but the law couldn't touch him.

Terra Leonhart kicked his feet up onto his desk and sighed, reading his book. It was one of Matthew Reilly's Jack West Jr books, showing the Australian former SAS trooper delving into forgotten tombs searching for the Seven Ancient Wonders of the world.

To a lot of people, Terra seemed like an action hero in his own right. He was tall and muscular, and there seemed to be an air of a battle-hardened veteran about him. Though in his job, he kind of had to be like that.

Terra's reading time was interrupted when a smirking, dark-haired man stood beside him. "The boss wants to see you."

The taller man closed his book with a sigh. "Care to elaborate, Vanitas?"

"Not really," the intruder smirked. "Though I have a feeling you're gonna get spanked. Tell me how Quistis' whip feels on your ass, will you?"

Terra groaned a little and stood up, throwing his book on the desk. "You're disgusting."

"So many girls would disagree," Vanitas half-sneered.

He ignored him and walked towards the Director's office. Vanitas Almasy was a stain on the TTPD, to be honest. How he'd ever gotten past checks was beyond him, but clearly he had somehow.

Terra remembered his manners when he reached the Director's door and rapped on the wood with one knuckle.

"Come in, Terra," a vibrant female voice called from within.

He opened the door and stepped in, closing it behind him before taking in the scene at a glance.

Director Quistis Trepe sat behind her somewhat ornate desk, her thin-rimmed glasses resting on the bridge of her nose. Her long, strawberry-blonde hair was tied into a small bun on her head, though bangs still framed her rounded face. A leather whip sat in a glass case nearby, heating rumours that the Director was a secret dominatrix.

There was another body in the room. Another woman, at that. This woman wore a light brown leather jacket over a white T-shirt and tight-fitting jeans. Her black boots had heels on them, but they weren't too tall. Her hair was short and blue, but he couldn't make many observations about her face yet, as she was looking dead ahead.

"Terra," Quistis smiled kindly, though her eyes seemed as steely as they ever were. "Take a seat." She indicated the empty chair.

Terra cleared his throat and sat down. He managed to get a look at the other woman's face then as she looked him over. She seemed cute, but he didn't let that do anything to him.

"You probably already know why there's someone else in the room with you," the Director told him, the smile not wavering.

He shifted in the chair. "Care to elaborate anyway?"

For her part, she chuckled. "Now is about the time in the year where we hand out junior officers to the more experienced once as…interns, if you would." She indicated the second woman. "This is Aqua Holland, your new partner."

The woman turned to Terra and held out a slender hand. "Pleasure to meet you."

Terra offered a weak smile and shook her hand.

"She'll accompany you on your cases from now on, alright?" Quistis told him, the steel in her voice, though her face kept the smile.

He gulped a little and nodded.

There was a knock at the door and a tall man with deep red hair and sunglasses on his head stepped in. "Director. We've got a call. There's been a murder."

Quistis' face shifted to one of shock. She'd never gotten that call as the Director of Homicide. She covered it quickly. "Thank you, Reno. Terra, Aqua, you two go."

The duo stood up and nodded, following Reno out as he explained where they were meant to go.

The sleek black car pulled up on the riverside road and Terra and Aqua stepped out. Aqua's face seemed a little pale at the thought of her first day being a murder investigation. She'd just been a street cop before, having only just been promoted to Detective.

Terra walked forward to a man in navy blue coveralls, who was crouched over what appeared to be a suitcase. The man clearly heard the footsteps, because he stood up, turned and pulled his mask down. He had spiky black hair and a scar on his left cheek. His face seemed to be one full of mirth, though no smile stood there now. "This one's a doozy, Terra." He looked over the detective's shoulder to look at the woman. "Who's this?"

"Oh, right." Terra ran a hand through his brown hair. "Aqua Holland, this is CSI Zack Fair. He seems to be at every crime scene hours before me. Sometimes I wonder if he wants to see dead bodies," he tried a joke.

Aqua's face was pale when she started to stretch her hand out.

Zack shook his head slightly. "These gloved hands touch dead flesh, honey," he said, holding his hands up. "I wouldn't recommend shaking them until I'm off the job."

Aqua nodded, gulping.

Terra walked around them to look into the suitcase, and bile began to crawl into his throat.

The body of a dark-haired woman was inside the suitcase. Her eyes were open, vacant and glazed, and her face was bloated from the release of natural gases. She was naked, her body twisted and contorted to fit into the suitcase.

Terra walked away slightly to get the thought out of his mind. "How was she found?" he asked Zack.

"A man was walking his dog along the pathway here," the CSI replied. "The dog went nuts when it found the suitcase washed up on the shore, and when the guy opened it, he threw up all over the place." He pointed to a man with a shock blanket wrapped over his shoulders. Police psychologists were talking to him, clearly trying to talk him down.

"Well, we won't be able to talk to him for a while," Terra muttered. "Got an ID?"

Zack nodded. "Her name's Annabeth Jackson. Twenty-three years old. A neighbour reported her missing a few days ago, thinking she might have been kidnapped. Guess it was a little more than that."

"Did she have any relatives?"

"None of note. Her dad pissed off when she was three, and her mom was dead by the time she was eighteen."

"Did she work?"

"Yeah, at a gym and sports store not far from here…" He looked at a notepad he held in his hand. "Er...Turks Gym."

"Thanks." Terra nodded to Zack and started to walk back to his car when he saw Aqua staring at the suitcase, her face an extreme shade of paleness. "Come on." He put a hand on her shoulder and took her to the car.

"H-how can you be so calm?" she demanded of him in a shaky voice.

"I'm not," he told her as he guided her into her seat. "It never gets any easier, trust me." He sat in the driver's seat and started it up, before driving in the direction of Turks Gym, guided by the speech-free GPS installed in the car.

The sound of Gackt's Redemption interrupted the silence. Terra looked at the screen on the centre console. Director Trepe calling. He sighed a little and pushed the 'answer' button. "Leonhart."

"So what was it?" Quistis' voice said from the speakers, sounding tinny.

"A woman named Annabeth Jackson," Terra replied. "Stripped and stuffed into a suitcase. Messy business."

He heard Quistis gag slightly on the other side of the line. "Any motive you can think of?"

"Not really. According to Zack, she was a bit of a recluse, except for her job at Turks Gym. I'm heading there now, see if her co-workers know anything." He paused. "I have a feeling this may be a sex thing."

Beside him, Aqua flinched and looked at him.

"Why's that?"

"Not many women are stripped naked after they're murdered. I think our killer raped her then killed her and stuffed her in the case."

Quistis breathed heavily. "Alright. Get to the gym. I'll call the pathologists to pick up the body from Zack." She hung up.

Aqua looked at Terra again, the colour slowly returning to her face. "You're rattled too, huh?"

He shot her a look. "How did…"

"Your hands are shaking," she pointed out.

Terra looked at the steering wheel to see that – sure enough – his hands were moving at a frantic pace side-to-side. He breathed deeply to compose himself somewhat. "Yeah. Like I said, it never gets any easier."

Turks Gym was a fairly small place, with only a few workers. A woman, two men and the boss, a bald man named Rude. Terra entrusted Aqua with interviewing the woman, who was sobbing quietly, while he himself interviewed the men, who could offer nothing major, other than the fact they thought Annabeth was "really hot". Somewhat annoyed, he spoke next to Rude. The man was as tall as Terra, with a trimmed beard on his chin. His ears were pierced extensively, and he wore black sunglasses, despite being inside. When Terra came to speak to him, however, he pulled them off to wipe at his eyes.

"I'm really sorry about this, sir," Terra apologised professionally as he sat opposite the bald man, "but I need to talk to you about…"

"Annabeth," the man interrupted, his voice cracking. "She was such…a beautiful girl. Inside and out. She had this…vibrant spirit."

"Did she have any romantic connections?"

"None, except for a boyfriend a few years ago. It wasn't anything serious."

Terra nodded slightly. "Can you think of anyone who'd want to hurt her?"

"No," Rude shook his head. "She'd never hurt a fly…unless they tried to hurt her first." He blinked away tears, then raised his head as if something had suddenly occurred to him. "Although…"

"What?"

"A few nights ago…there was a guy in a hoodie watching Annabeth for the whole night. He tried it on with her, but she slapped him across the face. He followed her after she left."

Terra's phone buzzed in his pocket. Probably Quistis calling him. "Will you be able to come to the police department to make a statement about that?"

Rude nodded. "Later, maybe. I just…need to process all this."

Terra smiled sympathetically. "That's alright." He stood up and indicated for Aqua to follow him outside.

Terra made his report to Quistis and left Aqua at the office before he drove home. He took a deep breath before he stepped inside.

A teenage boy of medium height was sitting on the sofa, a black video game controller in his hands. On screen was 1920's style scenery that was soured by all the soldiers shooting at the player.

"Hey, Sora," Terra smiled, putting his keys in a bowl on the table.

The boy paused the game and stood up, walking over to him and smiling. "Hey, big brother."

"So, how was school?"

Sora shrugged. "Boring as usual, really. The teachers still think I'm an idiot."

"What, you're not?" Terra grinned.

"Shut up!" the boy laughed.

This was what life was right now. Terra would come home from work to find his brother waiting for him. Their parents weren't around anymore. They'd been killed several years ago in a car accident, though Terra had long had suspicions about the circumstances. Like he was now, his parents, Squall and Rinoa, had been police officers. Before they'd died, they'd apparently pissed off a few too many powerful criminals, so Terra had suspicions that the crash was anything but accidental.

Terra started to put together some ingredients for their dinner.

"What happened at work?" Sora asked then.

"I don't really wanna talk about it while I make food, OK, kiddo?" Terra replied. "It's enough to put you off your dinner permanently. Let's put it that way."

Sora scrunched his nose. "You're no fun."

Terra rolled his eyes and laughed.

The boy tilted his head and looked at his older brother. "Anything you can talk about?"

Terra nodded a little. "Quistis gave me a partner. A woman named Aqua."

"Is she hot?"

"That's none of your business," Terra laughed.

"Oh, so she is?"

They laughed together, ate a modest dinner, and went to bed.

That night, Terra tried his best not to dream about Annabeth Jackson's body. He hadn't wanted to admit it to anyone, but…it haunted him more than anything he'd ever done as a police officer.

Maybe it was because he was familiar with the MO.