A/N: Because the promise of super-strength, even if only for a few moments, is just too lucrative…

This chapter takes place immediately after the last one.

Just as a warning, this story is not based at all on Before Crisis. Only on the original game, Advent Children, The Case of Tifa, and the Case of Denzel. As such, I'm making up some of the background of the Turks. Sorry if that drives anyone nuts.

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Part 6: Family Portrait – Elena

Elena counts the buildings as she passes them, unable to stop the numbers from sounding through her head. It was something her sister had always done when they were children and the habit has stuck with her. She is now 11 houses, 3 bars, 1 tavern, 5 stores and 37 shanties away from the bar she met Ren at. Shrugging her shoulders, she tries to drop the tallies from her mind but she can't. Her subconscious keeps at it. 38 shanties.

A man stands in front of this last patched-together shelter, wearing a thin white tank top and a toothy smile. His eyes are faintly luminescent and are completely blank. He sways a little where he stands, muscles shivering and convulsing. Mako. She blows a breath through her teeth and looks away. The man is lost in a mako-trip, track marks leaving muddled trails up the exposed white flesh of his arms. She wonders if maybe the slums of Midgar might not have returned after the city was destroyed if it hadn't been for all the mako-junkies flooding the streets. Glancing up at the star-spotted sky, she is thankful at least that there is no plate overhead.

"Heeeey, Baaabyyyyy." The baritone voice cuts through the air, lifting an octave at the last syllable.

A group of young men and woman stand a few feet to her right, leaning against the wall of a building—ratty clothes, heavy make-up, jittery movements. The man speaking is tall and wiry with spiked orange hair, hand pressed against the building window to keep his swaying body steady. That's tavern number 2. She doesn't slow her steps.

"Aww, come auwn Honey! The Lifeforce saved us and it's still savin' us, ya know? You've just got to let it, ya know? Ain't no such thing as the past or the present or the future or time an' all that garbage. You'll see, Honey. Come auwn." His voice suddenly drops, and he says, as if sharing a secret, "You look like you got the gil."

She pauses, idling mid-step so that she can look over her shoulder at the mako dealer. His eyes have the faintest glow, but it is sickly, not like the eyes of a SOLDIER or anyone else who has gone through the ShinRa mako infusion process. The stuff they sell on the streets is too dirty, too cheap and polluted. Its effects are temporary and the feelings of heightened awareness and strength last hours at the most. But the mental confusion? That's still there.

The drug dealer is laughing, high-pitched cackles that make her want to shiver. "Oh Honey, now I see Baby, you already got the starlight eyes. Haha. You know what I'm talking about, then. When you need more, you know where to come, right Honey?"

Very quietly she says, "I don't want your mako." Then she smiles politely and walks away.

Drug addict number 29.

She sighs, squinting up at the tower of the new ShinRa Headquarters. Construction on it was finally completed only months ago and it cuts the night sky in half with the silver line of its profile. It's a trick of the mind, she knows, but it looks like a giant, hovering over her shoulder, watching her wherever she goes, and it makes her want to hide. Childish, Elena, she thinks bitterly. Always such a child. But then, that's why she's here. That's why she forces herself to walk through the mako belt so often. It's to overcome her fear, her hate for the drug.

And where did that fear and hate start? It hadn't always been there. For a time she'd been proud of the glow in her eyes and the SOLDIERS she'd worked with. When had that changed?

She glances back at the ShinRa tower, finding the row of windows five floors from the top and smiles an expression that is no more than the tensing and loosening of muscles in her face. Tseng's bedroom. Tseng. It started with Tseng.

How long has it been now? Six years? Six years since Sephiroth almost killed him. Six years since Rufus brought him back to life with months and months of mako injections and who knew what else. Rufus saved his life but it came at the cost of his freedom. She draws a picture of Tseng in her mind, long black hair and the exquisite structure of his face with the piercing blue eyes and thinks, Mako addict number 30.

She's tired of counting, so tired of counting. If she could only stop, maybe she'd get used to it. Maybe she could walk through the mako belt and not feel disgusted. She wants to learn to do that. She's trying so hard but nothing seems to change and she hates that she can't look at Tseng without feeling a little bit sick. She hates that she can't tell him she loves him and not taste bitterness on her tongue because the him she once loved is a prisoner now. She hates that she can't hear him say "I love you" back without feeling betrayed by his lack of strength.

She hates feeling so handicapped by her emotions. She just wants to be cured.

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The door is slightly ajar when she gets to Rufus' office, large ornate wood skewed only enough to let sound escape. Hand resting on the doorknob, she pauses, a conversation floating past her.

"The rebels got another three mako mines today, boss." It's Reno's voice, bouncing along lazily with the undercut tones of a sharp knife.

Rufus' steady bass replies, "How many were ours?"

"Only one."

"But I'd say that's a pretty good deal, wouldn't you?"

"If you say so boss."

A pause, then, "Elena, you can come in you know."

Breath caught in her throat, she pushes the door open slowly, fighting to control her expression but unable to erase the shock that raises her eyebrows and widens her eyes. "Sir? I'm sorry—I didn't, I mean—I—"

Reno turns to her, stares a moment, and begins laughing, an arm thrown across his stomach. He leans forward, clumps of long bright-red hair sliding over his shoulders from the pony tale at his neck. "Damn Rookie, you know how to make a face, yo. Ain't seen anyone look that scared since I caught this kid peeing on my motorcycle one night in the slums."

Her face is red. She can feel it, and it makes her even more embarrassed to think that she is standing there with a tomato for a head. Very nice. Elena the tomato head. "Sir…" she starts, ignoring Reno as much as she can.

Rufus shakes his head and gives her a paternal smile. "Don't worry about it, Elena. I saw you on the surveillance camera." He taps one of the monitors on his desk and she feels incredibly stupid for not remembering the cameras outside his door. She should have been more attentive.

"Yes, sir," is all she can think to say.

Leaning forward in the large swivel chair and placing his elbows on his expansive desk, Rufus turns back to Reno. "Thank you for your report, Reno. I want you to keep pretending to put up a fight. Keep me updated on the status of the mines."

Reno salutes stiffly, "Aye, Boss." Spinning sharply on his heal, he saunters out of the room, brushing by Elena with a grin on his face. She catches the smell of cheap liquor and cigarettes and expensive cologne as he passes. She remembers that the contradiction in scents had once confused her, but now it only seems to belong, to make sense with the way his fingers twirl his electric nightstick expertly over his knuckles and the way his ridiculous hair falls in sections over his back. It's a smell distinctly Reno.

The door closes with surprising gentleness and she is left alone with Rufus. Her gaze shifts across the room. It's a large office, thick deep-red rug and dark wood furniture labeling Rufus as a very rich man. The wood itself costs more than most people see in their lives. Even with the mako reactors gone, there still isn't anything close to a forest near Midgar. It will take years for foliage like that to grow back. And Elena has her suspicions about this new energy source they are using. Burning natural gas doesn't exactly produce clean air as a byproduct. People in the city were starting to complain…

"Elena."

Her gaze jolts back to Rufus. He is regarding her with a casual look, blond bangs neatly combed to the side so that she can easily see his blue eyes. "Yessir," she says in one word.

"What did you find?" He folds his hands on the table, the crisp lines of his gray suit tracing the outline of strong arms.

"I met with Ren Akabori as planned. He is trying to make heroes to fight the remnants of SOLDIER." A pause, then, "He says the SOLDIERS are mobilizing, sir."

Rufus sighs and nods. "They are."

"Sir?"

"Not against ShinRa of course. They are programmed to be loyal to ShinRa at all costs. If my father did anything right, it was making sure the SOLDIERS were properly brainwashed. But they were also trained to be violent and the Jenova cells and Mako poisoning have made them massively unstable. They are driven by the need to kill. The residents of Midgar won't be safe from them if they decide to attack."

"Do you think they'll attack?" She tries to imagine that, but she realizes she doesn't even have any idea how many of them there are. Ten? Twenty? Fifty? How many actually survived the near-annihilation of the planet?

"Absolutely. It's only a question of when."

"But why?"

"Mako." Rufus' lips form a thin hard line. "Mako makes the world go 'round. It's the most precious commodity we have, and the most valuable one too. All the successful business men in the world understand that—even this Ren. That's what Avalanche never quite got. Destroying the reactors didn't squelch our fascination with Life's Blood."

She blinks and tries not to look surprised. She doesn't know why, but it's strange to hear Rufus call the drug by its slang term. Life's Blood is a phrase she expects to hear yelled by the dealers on the street. It's the phrase she expects to hear sliding bitterly between Tseng's teeth as he shoots up, a regretful and defeated look in his blue-ice eyes. She considers for a moment, and then suddenly understands. "The SOLDIERS… they're mako addicts, aren't they, sir?" She sounds like a little girl to herself, lost in youthful wonder at the blond man sitting calmly in front of her. Such a child, such a child.

Rufus nods. "Yes, and they're in the advanced stages of poisoning. They haven't had the benefit of the anti-toxins we've been giving Tseng. You've walked through the mako belt often enough to know that anyone who wants to get mako comes to Midgar."

He knew about her trips to the mako belt? How? She feels frozen before him and completely exposed. He is the only one that can make her feel so vulnerable and she thinks it has something to do with the piercing sharpness of his stare, the intelligent strength behind his words, and the ordered precision of his persona. "What should we do, sir?"

"Let Ren try to make his heroes. If he can get rid of the problem for us, that's great."

"But he's using mako-infusions. Isn't that going to make the problem worse?"

Rufus shakes his head and smiles in an almost fatherly way. It has a calming effect on her. "It's not the mako that makes the SOLDIERS so dangerous, it's the Jenova cells, or the combination rather. As long as Ren is only using mako, he'll just be making really strong people, but nothing superhuman and nothing we can't handle if we need to."

She turns that over in her mind, biting her lip. Jenova cells. Is that what makes the SOLDIERS so crazy? After all these years, Jenova was still getting her revenge on them. The Turks had never been treated with Jenova cells, and she wonders why now. It had always kept the SOLDIERS on a level slightly higher than them. Did Rufus' father know even then what Jenova would do to people's minds? A question suddenly pops into her thoughts. "Sir… Cloud, he went through the mako SOLDIER process. Why is he different?"

Rufus looks pleased. "Very good Elena. He's not."

She tries not to smile at his praise and look like a goofy-faced kid.

Rufus is continuing, "Mako weakens the mind. Cloud hasn't touched mako in years and as long as he doesn't, his mind will be strong enough to keep the Jenova cells in control. He'll be fine as long as he stays clean. And, he's had a lot of practice with being crazy. Maybe he's just learned how to deal with his disjointed mind better."

"So keep Cloud away from mako, Sir. Got it." Elena says, nodding. She inwardly cringes at how overly chipper her words sound.

"That's not all Elena."

"Sir?"

"I have a mission for you. I want you to keep an eye on Ren. You were right before when you implied that what he is doing can be dangerous. I want to make sure we have control of him."

"How?"

"Elena… how would you describe Ren?"

She pauses, then starts slowly, "Well… he seemed very genuine and… passionate." She brings a finger to her chin and crinkles her brow, "And I think he may have found me attractive."

"Perfect," and Rufus practically purrs as he says it.

She gives him a confused look.

"Elena, I think it's time that you got rid of that formal blue suit. Perhaps something more feminine?"

Elena blinks and lets out a shaky, "Sir?" She suddenly feels very uncomfortable.

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The scientist, Jenkins, was bad enough. She doesn't want to seduce Ren too, especially as a long-term undercover project that she can't tell herself will be over in a few hours. But she's the only female Turk, so naturally, the job is hers. She wonders if she would still be the undercover agent if there was another female Turk to choose from. She remembers Rufus' parting words, "And Elena, please remember to keep your mouth shut," and in her mind she hears Tseng echoing, "Elena, you talk too much." He's always telling her that, but usually now it's the precursor to a kiss.

Reno is waiting outside when she slips out the door, sealing the powerful demeanor of Rufus in the room behind her. He smiles charmingly, but as always with that little mocking twist at the corner of his lips, and as always with that arrogant arch of his eyebrows. "Heya Rookie, wanna go to the bar and get punch-drunk happy, yo?" His smile wilts a little. "You look like ya need it."

She scowls back at him, trying to rein her expression into control. "You drink too much, Reno. And yes, that's a no. Rufus just gave me a mission and I have to get ready to-" She stops. Elena, you talk too much.

Chuckling, he crosses his arms over his chest and begins to walk, she keeping pace at his side. "Hey girl, you can kick 'em back just as good as the rest of us. 'Sides, might be fun." He gives her a sideways glance and waggles an eyebrow. "I won't tell Tseng if you don't, yo."

"Pervert," she grits out harshly.

"Yup. I've spent years perfecting that. So what's the big mission, 'Lena?"

She exhales a long breath of air and holds her folded hands in front of her as she walks. "I'm supposed to go undercover and gain the trust of this guy that is trying to make heroes to fight the left-over SOLDIERS. What's more, Rufus wants me to dress up so the guy will be more willing to talk to me."

Reno stops suddenly, grabbing her shoulder and spinning her to face him. His blue-diamond eyes slice through her skin as he looks her over, a stern expression on his face. In flash, a grin splits his features. "This is going to be fun."

She narrows her eyes suspiciously. Reno's idea of fun always results in terror for everyone else. "What do you mean?" His hand is still on her shoulder and she wants to make him move it but her body remains still.

"The suit will be the first to go." He scans her head to toe and then back again. "Something form-fitting and strappy. The color might be able to stay, though I think maroon might work better."

"What? Are you dressing me in your mind?"

"Normally I'd be doing the opposite."

"Stop, now." She grinds her teeth together for emphasis.

Reno doesn't seem to notice. Instead, he leans forward conspiratorially, his voice quiet. "But you know, the real fashion guru is Rude. The man can spot a knock-out dress a mile away, yo. See, me, I've naturally got style, but Rude, he has to work to be cool. Goes to show how talented he is, ain't like he's got a lot of good raw material to start from. Why do you think he barely talks? He's worried he's gonna mess it up."

"That's ridiculous."

"Hell no, it's the truth."

They reach the elevator and it is already there waiting for them, door open. Inside, Reno turns to her and says, "You sure you don't wanna have a drink, yo? Bring Tseng too. It'll be a party. Rude's comin'."

She shakes her head as the elevators rings out its announcement that they have arrived at her destination. Five floors from the top. "Have fun, Reno," she calls over her shoulder as she exits.

"Elena…"

She stops, frozen by the sudden seriousness of his voice, and turns back to him. He is standing with a hand braced against the elevator doorway, its electronic light sensors forcing it to stay open. A foot trails behind him in mid-step. "If you end up facing the SOLDIERS, you give us a call, okay? You're good, but you're nothing against them. Cloud is bad enough, but a whole bunch of the crazy bastards? Even with all of us it still could be…" He lets the sentence hang, unfinished. After a long, even stare, he says, "You just call us, okay?"

"Sure Reno." She smiles and turns away.

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Tseng is shooting up when she enters his room, the words "Life's Blood," trickling over his lips in a tight, ragged stream as the needle of green fluid pierces the skin of his arm. He has that look of anger in his eyes, that frustrated need for a revenge that will never come because Sephiroth is already dead. Thanks Cloud. You weren't the only one who needed to fight him to save your pride, she thinks. Tseng hisses air through his teeth as the vile empties, like a cartoon sound effect. And then it is done. He throws the needle at the garbage pail in the corner of the spacious living room with deadly precision.

Blue-ice eyes flick up to hers. "Elena." It isn't a question, it isn't a statement, isn't a command or an accusation. It is simply a word, an acknowledgement of existence, and he doesn't smile when he says it. He never smiles when he's doing drugs.

She remembers the time he tried to quit. He'd lasted three days before the shaking got so bad that it was either have some mako or let his muscles rip his tendons apart. Obviously, he chose the mako. "Hi, Tseng," she says with a masquerade smile.

He tilts his head, rubbing his sore forearm that is puckered with scarred needle-pricks. "Rufus said you'll be gone for a while."

"Yes," she nods. "Don't know how long."

He takes a step closer to her, pale skin like white snow. It looks as cold too. "How do you feel about it?"

She shrugs, smiles a little, and looks away, eyes finding the royal blue rug. Then she is gazing at him again and saying, "I'm a Turk. I'll do my job."

A thin smile settles on his lips, and it seems to change the way the light reflects off his entire face. "That's what I like about you, Elena."

"What?"

"Do you remember when Kadaj caught us and tortured us?"

"I wish I could forget."

"Even though you couldn't control the tears in your eyes, you never once screamed."

She remembers, and she remembers why she didn't scream. It was because he was there.

"You have spirit, Elena." He holds her, his grip like the steel of her gun on her arms, and he kisses her forehead gently. She surrenders to him willfully, even though the scent of mako still clings to his skin, because she belongs here. The Turks are her family, and tomorrow, she will have to leave them. But tonight, tonight she is home.

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A/N: Thoughts? Comments? Critique? Leave a note please. It's much appreciated.