A/N: You gotta love musical inspiration. Go listen to Utada Hikaru – Final Distance. It has to be the saddest song I've ever heard, especially the story behind it. Yeah I'm random.

Anymoo, another ultra-happy chapter for you all to enjoy.

Chapter 21

"You killed him…" Elena said, slightly breathlessly.

She couldn't believe what she had just seen. Two Turks had been killed in two months… and both by vampires. She had been having an argument with herself since the day she saw the vampire named Phoenix whether he really was a vampire or not. But right now, a lot of evidence was pointing to yes.

She had known right from the start that getting friendly with Phoenix was just running straight into the fire. She knew the only reason she had been so desperate to get involved with him was because he reminded her so intensely of Reno. Of course that really wasn't such a good thing, because now she was completely heart-broken all over again.

She was so confused. She knew if Reno had been there, he would have killed Joey just like Phoenix had. But she couldn't help but feel furiously upset at what Phoenix had just done.

"'Lena? C'mon." Phoenix said. He made to grab her hand but she pulled away.

"Leave me alone." She cried. She didn't know why she was so upset, but she quickly began to break down in tears.

Phoenix didn't say anything, but he slowly put his arm around Elena. She gave in and leaned into him, still sobbing uncontrollably. She hated him, yet his touch was making her melt on the spot.

All the while, Phoenix said nothing. He was motionless as he held Elena. Slowly, her crying eased, and she looked up at him.

"I'm sorry 'Lena." He removed his arm and began to walk off. Elena opened her mouth to say something but stayed silent, ignoring the sudden overwhelming urge to call him back.

Tearing her eyes away from Phoenix's disappearing form, she looked down at Joey. His black eyes, usually filled with some sort of fury, were emotionless, and starting up at the sky. There was a trickle of blood coming from his mouth, and his chest where the bullet wound was. She could still see the large purple bruise on the right hand side of his neck. Then she began to wonder…

She looked from Joey's neck to her surrounding on the right. If the bruise was there, then Phoenix must have come from the right. What was he doing there in the first place? As she looked around, she remembered; the base for the vampires was about 500 yards away to the right.

"No…" she muttered, laying Joey's head back down on the floor. "It can't be…"

She pulled out her cell phone and dialled Tseng's number.

"Hello?"

"Sir… I think you should come here." Elena said. She was annoying to find her voice was shaking.
"Elena, what's the matter?" Tseng asked concernedly.

"Just come please. I need your help."

As usual, it didn't take Tseng long to sort things out. Joey's body was taken, but where it was taken Elena didn't much care. There was only one question in her mind.

"What's going to happen to Phoenix?" Elena asked Tseng as she sat opposite his desk in his office.

"Nothing." Tseng replied simply. "For a start, I said that if lives are at risk, assassination of a fellow Turk is acceptable. And I had my own suspicions about Joey."

"But…" Elena started. She wanted to tell him what she knew about Phoenix, but she didn't quite know how to word it.

"I know you have your suspicions of Phoenix as well. In fact…" Tseng sighed and rolled his eyes for some reason. "Yuffie came to see a couple of weeks ago."

"She told you? Then why didn't you do anything about it?" Elena asked. She remembered what she had been thinking that day, and what she had expected Tseng to do.

"Because I wanted to see what would happen. Phoenix is a very interesting, yet suspicious character. I don't think he is any real threat to anyone."

"He just killed Joey." Elena said, slightly shocked at how Tseng was taking it.

"And saved your life while doing so." Tseng smiled knowingly. "Did you ever think of that?"