**This story is active again as of November 2016. All existing chapters will be updated, soon followed by new chapters. I will also be posting this story on its own tumblr account**

The story begins 40 years before the events of the main FFVII game. Shinra is the most powerful-and some argue immoral-company on the planet. In order to train new recruits for combat, it has established the Shinra Military and Special Forces Academy. And that is exactly where Alexa ends up. Can she prove her worth and rise to the ranks of the infamous Turks? And if she does, will there be consequences?

Location: Shinra Military and Special Forces Academy

Wyld Mountain Range, 17 km southeast of Kalm

Age: 15 years old, Level: Academy Fodder

Alexa Spero sniffled as she rubbed her puffy eyes and then pulled the blanket over her head to block the light of the fading sun, which bathed the room in a crimson glow. Some of her classmates had been picking on her yet again, and try as she might she couldn't stem the hopelessness that engulfed her. Today they had made fun of her voice; it was soft and "girly," despite her effort to deepen it. The gang's relentless taunts crumbled her resolve, while her petite frame was defenseless against the onslaught of punches and kicks from boys much larger than herself. The school's instructors turned a blind eye to the bullying. They, along with the rest of the residents of the Academy, simply did not care if Alexa was abused and miserable.

Her main fault was her gender. The majority of male students and instructors seemed to loathe girls on principle ever since the school became co-ed. It was challenging for female applicants to gain entry. Alexa was able to attend due to her father's connections with the Shinra Company. This "special treatment" was considered an unfair advantage by her peers, though none knew the full story of how and why she came to be here. The hostile atmosphere since day one had made it impossible for Alexa to make any friends, and she took the brunt of the bullying when her classmates got bored. Usually she could put on a tough face before her tormenters, but some days she just couldn't help herself. When the boys saw tears they hit her harder. Today had been one of those days.

This was her life at Shinra Military and Special Forces Academy. Alexa had arrived feeling eager and confident. She was ready for an adventure, ready to meet the teenagers who would grow into the most skilled fighters on the planet. But she hadn't anticipated the crushingly competitive atmosphere, or the endless lists of rules and regulations. Not to mention the fact that she was treated like a pariah. It was only two months since the start of the semester, but she had already christened her new home "Hell on Gaia."

Alexa wondered what she could have done to deserve this treatment. She hugged her knees closer to her body, letting her anxieties and doubts consume her. Now that she was back in her sparse, cramped closet of a bedroom she could wallow in her gloomy thoughts without anyone bothering her. Her goal wasn't to become the best. She was too levelheaded to know that was impossible. She did, however, want to do her best. She was determined to succeed and shove it in the faces of those male chauvinists who looked down at her… But more importantly, she wanted to assist her father. She constantly reminded herself that she was at the Academy for him. That detail seemed to be the only thing keeping her going.

Theodore Spero was an anthropologist—the greatest alive, Alexa believed. He was certainly one of the most well-known of this age. Theodore's life ambition was to decipher the ancient Cetran legends. Precious few documents withstood the test of time, and even fewer of these were fully intact. Alexa had always been so proud of her father's work. As a child, she loved staying up late into the evening to sit next to him in their library, watching him pour over old scrolls with their mysterious runes and translate them into his own concise handwriting. On some nights, Theodore would pause in his transcriptions and read a few passages to his entranced daughter. When she was older Alexa would read them herself, curling up in an old armchair and devouring the stories until she couldn't keep her eyes open.

Alexa had known a comfortable childhood. Shinra had funded her father's work, which meant she grew up ignorant of the hardships many families faced in this harsh world. The Speros lived in a manor in Nićest, a quaint town on the western coast of Mideel, which was the largest island off the Eastern Continent. She might have been living there still, going to school with her friends and then being apprenticed by a scholar from her father's collegiate circles, had fate been kinder.

xxxxx

The only place where she felt happy these days was the shooting range in the Academy's basement. The focus needed to excel here provided a momentary peace of mind, which was always most welcome. Alexa bade her mind to clear, pushing away all her pent-up resentment and frustration. She breathed a sigh as she felt the tension slowly fade. The negative thoughts would return, but for now she could forget and find serenity in the moment.

Raising the pistol in her hand, she took aim and pulled the trigger. Even with earmuffs, the room rang with a satisfying bang. Pleased, Alexa allowed herself a smile; there was now a hole within the second innermost ring of the target forty feet away.

The discovery she had been a decent shooter was the reason why she hadn't packed up and left like most girls brave or foolish enough to enroll. Being raised by a pacifist, Alexa had never known combat until coming to the Academy. The lifestyle change was like being hit with a bucket of cold water. Or closer to being pushed into an icy lake. She hated training with practice swords and metal batons, lacking in the natural strength of her male counterparts. As hard as she tried, she was simply no match for them.

Alexa considered herself a lost cause until the day they learned to use a handgun. It was intimidated at first, feeling the weighed the small weapon in her hand and knowing it was capable of blasting metal at an incredible velocity with the twitch of a finger. It was an accident waiting to happen. But once she hofired a few rounds, Alexa felt nothing but exhilaration and was eager to keep shooting. In this area of combat strength didn't matter, and she found herself matching some of the top boys in her year. But far from winning her peers' respect, Alexa became the focus of even more harassment. It was just her luck.

The dull click of the empty magazine brought her mind out of its trancelike focus. She popped it out of the pistol's now empty chamber and reloaded. Once she finished replacing the rounds, she slid the silver cartridge back into the pistol's hollow handle.

Alexa spent as much free time as she could afford in the shooting range. Now that she had found a worthwhile skill, she cultivated it as carefully as possible. Measuring up to the high standards Shinra presented was an immensely difficult task, and only an elite few graduated every year in the Specialty divisions. Alexa strove to be counted in their ranks.

She took careful aim for her last shot. Making sure she had a perfect bead on the target, she fired. The bullet punctured the innermost circle.

Maybe I'll make a Turk after all, she thought with a grin.