ENTERING THE TURKS
By Inarae
Disclaimer: As always,
everything from Final Fantasy belongs to SquareSoft and a lot of other
people. I'm grateful to them for
creating such a wonderful world for me to play in, and hope they don't mind me
doing so.
Did anyone else spend at least half the game wondering about
the probability of a very silly sounding character getting into a certain elite
position? This is my answer to how that
could have came about.
Rating: This part is
a PG-13, for language. It'll probably
be R the next part, for just about everything.
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"Three
minutes, forty-two seconds. A new army
record. Congratulations,
lieutenant. You've become quite the
asset to the Shinra military lately."
"Thank you,
sir." The young officer saluted
sharply as she accepted the award and her assembled classmates burst into
enthusiastic applause behind her.
The air in the female officers' locker
room hung heavy with slimy steam that smelled of sweat and mildew. It almost defeated the purpose of the
showers, the new record holder mused, attempting to remove at least a little of
the unpleastant stickiness from her skin with a towel before she got
dressed. But that was the nature of
locker rooms everywhere. It'd seem
sacrilegious to go into a nice private bathroom covered in the mud and God
knows what else she usually ended up stinking of anyhow.
"So where
are you heading to now that this spate of training's over?" Linda, one of the other lieutenants, called
out to her as she stood under the hot air dryers, shaking her head like an
irritated puppy to get the drops of water out of her short hair. "With those scores, you've got your pick of
assignments."
"Hell, with
those scores, they ought to create a new division of the army for her if she
wants." Ensign Panders laughed from the
showers. "Good job by the way,
Elena. I loooved watching the
expressions on the guys' faces as you finished the course faster than
them. You won me twelve hundred gil."
"Thanks and
you're welcome," Lieutenant Elena
smirked. "You ended up better off than
me then; all I got was an ugly pink and orange ribbon."
"Heidigger's
elegant fashion sense coming through again.
I'm just glad he didn't mess with our uniforms when he took over. We'd have ended up looking like purple
mushrooms or something." Linda rolled
her eyes, wrapping a towel around her waist as she headed over. "But you didn't answer- where're you going?"
"I'm not
sure yet."
"I'll bet seventy that you end up
commanding Junon in ten years." A bill
appeared suddenly between Pander's fingers, and she twirled it in invitation.
Elena
grinned. "You'd lose it."
"Like hell
I would. You're just that good. Wait till a war starts; you're gonna be so
decorated your dress uniform's gonna look like a suit of armor. You just don't realize how far above the
rest of us you are."
"Oh, I
know." Elena gave up on her skin and
began scrubbing the loose woven towel through the thick strands of her short,
almost florescent blond hair. "I'm
gonna be way above that."
Pander
blinked. "Above Junon command. . ."
"You are so
full of yourself," Sharon, an officer from another division, shook her head
coldly. "Everyone's sweet on you now
cuz of your big blue eyes and that sweet, pale skin that blushes so prettily so
often. But just you watch, you're gonna
piss someone off with that arrogance, and all that beauty's gonna be for
nothing.
Elena
smirked, her expression almost wolfish as she smiled broadly, showing
teeth. "Beauty has it's uses." The other woman snorted and turned away
angrily.
She turned back to her
friends. "The invitation came in this
morning."
"And you
didn't tell us until now? You
bitch!" Linda exclaimed delightedly,
only hesitating a second. That
expression on Elena's face just now, as she watched Sharon walk away, like she
had been looking forward to tearing apart anyone who got in her way as she
climbed to the top. Not an unusual
expression for Elena, but always disturbing.
Pander
finally figured out what the invitation was.
"SOLDIER?!!!" the short girl from Wutai breathed in amazement. "You've been invited to join
SOLDIER?!!! They're the only people
above the army chain of command except the regular Shinra bureaucracy."
Linda burst
out laughing. "And I bet you think
you're gonna end up in charge even there.
Sharon was right, you are arrogant.
Insanely arrogant." She sighed, "But damn that's impressive. Wish I could join you." She frowned. "Wait a minute. You said
you're not sure where're you're going.
If you got an invitation to SOLDIER, what the hell else could you be
thinking of doing?"
Elena
turned back to her locker to get out clothes, her ice cold eyes staring back at
her from the mirror on the door.
"The
Turks."
Linda
stopped laughing. "Don't even think
about it girl." She said firmly. "Tsang doesn't hire females, period. He even said so in an interview once, 'Women
are too weak and flighty for the Turks.'
And no matter how good you are, you're just going to end up dead if you
piss him off by pushing too hard. I
know you like challenges, but that's waaay beyond even you."
"Why not
SOLDIER?" Pander put in, frowning. "To all basic extents and purposes, they're
equally impressive. Equal rank, equal
status. . ."
"Tseng's
practical above all else. He won't turn
down an advantage just for pride."
Elena replied smoothly, folding her towel and putting it away. "And
SOLDIERS are like those ancient medieval knights. A victory doesn't count in their eyes unless it's honorable
single combat, no tricks allowed, just muscle to muscle. I ain't got that." Elena shrugged ruefully.
"Like hell
you don't! You can beat almost any guy
on the base, one-on-one."
"Yeah,
'Almost'." Elena flashed her that
wolfish grin, eyes hidden behind sharp strands of bangs. "But if I can use tricks. . ."
"You trying
to be another Merda?" Pander demanded.
"A
firestorm straight from hell, or more accurately from the Turks." Elena
quoted. "General Merda could snap a
man's skull with the tips of her little fingers or blast him and all his
comrades to bloody shards in a single handed ambush. One of the greatest warriors ever to come through this
academy. Too bad she retired at the end
of the Wutai wars."
"Fuck, you
memorized the entire lecture?"
Elena
grinned and wiped the wrinkles out of her shirt before putting it on. "She even beat General Sephiroth at war
games once."
"Yeah, when
he was twelve," Linda snorted.
"So, what
does age matter? That new Turk was only
fourteen when he joined them."
Pander
groaned. "The redhead with the
nightstick? Don't even mention
him. Did you see him this morning in
the training field? I jogged past
him, just barely glanced over at him as
I passed, and he gave me this Look, like he decided that my noticing him meant
that I might be a threat for him to 'eliminate' or something."
"They say
he's a genius at killing." Elena said
softly, a small smile crossing her lips.
"Only you
would say that with a smile," Linda groaned.
"Listen, back to the Turks. If
you had entered Shinra three years ago, before Tsang took command, you might
have had a chance. As it is. . . he'll
never let a woman in." Linda shook her
head. "Give it up. That's honest advice from a good
friend. Even if he just turns you down
and leaves it at that, you're gonna look stupid, everyone will know it, and
that's gonna seriously hurt your career."
Elena
finished tightening the buckles on her outfit.
If nothing else, the Turks' simple navy blue suit would be a lot easier
to put on, and more comfortable to wear.
"I'll think about it," she promised.
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As always, I'd love to get criticism.
So, how do you like my version of Elena? Don't worry, I'll turn her into the blond
bimbo we all know and love in the next chapter. . .
I've listed all the reasons why it'd be hard for her to
enter the Turks this chapter. Now all
she's got to do is get in. . . meet Reno and Rude face to face . . . deadly,
semi-psychotic because he's so young to be a killer, Reno's gonna be FUN to
write (can you tell I've been watching too much Kenshin?) . . . and let's not forget her 'interview' with
Tseng. . .
