Corel. Desert town. Prison town. Mining town. Little town, set beneath the mountains. It was small town in the middle of nowhere, but like most towns it had an orphanage.
The girl's parents were gone and her grandparents had passed away leaving no one else to care for her. The lady at the orphanage spoke of her family, her grandparents raised chocobo and the little girl was a natural with them. She wanted to be a chocogirl when she grew up and she'd declare this in her toddler's voice to anyone who would listen. The lady at the orphanage didn't know that the couple interested in adopting the girl wasn't a couple at all or that to them her dreams were irrelevant. Assuming she survived, the specimen's fate had all ready been decided.
The experiment was a sociological affair, it's premise simple, take orphaned children and raise them in isolation with the intent of creating an ideal combatant. Dr. Herbert, head of the program, respected his colleague Dr. Hojo, but was certain it took more than genetics to create the perfect SOLDIER. So while Hojo and Hollander sought to create perfection through genesplicing, Herbert set out to show that even ordinary children selected at random could, in the proper environment, become extraordinary.
Of the numerous subjects, the girl was the only to survive. Back in Corel when she was just a pretty red haired little girl who loved chocobos and the big blue skies, she had been named...well that didn't matter anymore. She still remembered her name, but Shinra had dubbed her Cissnei and that was the name tied to who she had become. The little girl from Corel was gone, rooted out along with weakness and mercy.
At the age of eight Cissnei knew two things. No one was to be trusted, and that life was a game of predators and prey. If you didn't want to be eaten alive, then your only option was to be the predator. She hated people; everyone was a potential enemy, but she ready for that, always on guard.
In truth, all her training made her a very unlikely Turk. The President had suggested Veld take her for the department.
"She's been raised by the company since birth, trained specifically to become a Turk one day. She's perfect for your department, a gift."
If Veld had refused the President's offer, it was likely she would have been put down, culled as a failed experiment.
Dr. Hojo did not respect Dr. Herbert and did not want to begin physical augmentations on "Herbert's pit hound", and Dr. Herbert insisted the entire point of the experiment was to show that alteration was not necessary; a SOLDIER could be made without the use of mako. Without alteration she would never be on par with the likes of SOLDIER. In truth the President had come to feel Dr. Herbert's experiment was a waste of money. So the project was shut down and Cissnei was offered to the Turks, if they wanted her.
Veld honestly didn't want the girl at first. For all her skill she was damaged. However, he knew she could prove useful and there was nowhere else for her to go. It would be a waste if they did not take her. So at the age of eight, Cissnei became a Turk. She was the youngest operative in the department's history.
Veld found use for her young age, a child spy was never suspected and she had learned the art of deception. What she had not learned was how to trust in other people.
The Turks relied on one another, looked after each other, and Cissnei would not fit in well if she persisted in her belief that everyone was out to get her. Of course, it wasn't her fault; it was what she had been taught. Cissnei was what she was raised to be, and that mindset would take time to undo.