Dante spent the following day in a restless stupor. An early message relayed by Alvis directly to his door (as the rookie hadn't been issued a PHS yet) informed that he was to wait at his apartment until further notice by Veld.

The entire day went by without a single message entering Dante's phone. Not even those annoying texts sent by Shinra to remind that employees should not dispose of used coffee grindings on the flowerpots or that raccoons should not be kept as pets.

Dante felt briefly at ease later in the evening when someone knocked at his door. He jumped out of his couch and dashed to meet not another one of his comrades, but Erick.

"Um, hi," he began, but Dante had already noticed the SOLDIER's standard-issue rucksack hanging behind his back.

"You are leaving," he said quietly.

"Yeah. I was just deployed to Fort Condor. We'll be gone a couple weeks. I just ran here to say goodbye."

"I see," Dante said a bit dishearten. "Take care while over-"

"No, no. You take care. I'm sorry I'm not able to be here with you during this time. If I could I'd tell Genesis to take Leclerc or-"

Dante smiled and interrupted: "don't worry. I'll manage it."

"I'm serious! I know the, um, situation, is complex but," Erick cut himself as his PHS began beeping. He picked up the call and began speaking: "Sir! Yes, I'm on my way. I'm sorry for the delay. I'll be there in no time." He hanged the phone and turned back to Dante.

"Go, they're waiting for you."

"I'll be back soon," Erick said before crushing Dante in a mako-enhanced hug. He gave him a short, tender kiss and went on: "don't skip meals, please."

"I won't," Dante said with a chuckle while Erick walked away through the hallway.

"I'm serious. I already paid John two weeks of breakfast! He'll tell me if you skip any!" Erick yelled before turning at the end of the hallway.

Dante went back to his couch and waited. The long periods of meditation had helped him more or less start to cope with the events of the previous night. He figured that the fact that he was struggling so hard with the whole ordeal meant that Rude was right after all. Dante leaned back on his couch and closed his eyes. It would´ve been worrying if it had been easy. At some point he dozed off. Images of flashing orange lights, thunderous sounds and red plagued his dreams.

"Trouble sleeping? Bet you have," a cold, cocky voice said.

Dante rose his gaze to see Sharpe leaning casually against the wall in front of him.

"How did you-!?"

"Zip it you fucking coward," he said while pointing a compact submachine pistol at the Turk. "I just wanted you to see him in the eye while I blew your brains out," he said while pointing at Dante's side with a lazy gesture of the gun's barrel.

Sharpe's boss, or more accurately, his corpse, was sitting next to Dante. A deep red stain had formed the cushion behind his half-empty head.

"Goodbye, you little bitch." Sharpe pulled the trigger and the gun began a series of fully auto fire.

Dante awoke gasping and covered in cold sweat to some incessant knocking at his door. He turned around frantically before grasping what had happened.

He walked to the door and opened to meet Alvis on the other side:

"Uh, hi. Chief Veld wants to see you now," he said dutifully.

"I'll be there in a moment, I'll just," Dante pulled at the sweat-soaked shirt, "change out of this."

"Ok man. I'll let him know. See ya there." Alvis ducked to pick up a heavy-looking file box and began walking away. Dante was about to close his door when the rookie turned around and asked: "Hey –shit, this is heavy- where's the Datamining, Unscrambling, Metadata and Binaries Department? Ruluf told me to deliver these to some Rubwanna Outte there."

Dante suppressed a chuckle and decided to play 'bully the rookie': "That'll be in floor 69."

"Thank Gaia! Nobody seemed to know her!" Alvis went on with his Sisyphean task.

Dante wondered how on Gaia that kid had kept such level of innocence while living in the slums. Then again, and looking at his current situation, he feared it would not last much longer.

Dante entered the office to find Elena berating Reno over something left out of place in the materia drawers, or as she often said: 'an organized inventory is a happy inventory'. Judet and Freyra were busy looking at some floor plans, and discussing something unintelligible while Balto was busy spreading oil with a strong clove scent over the blade of his katana.

"What do you mean 'asking for us'?" Emma was saying to the phone. "No, I'll go down, keep him there."

Dante walked to the other end of the office and knocked at the frosted glass door. Tseng opened and guided Dante though his ante-office and into Veld's. After the three had taken seat, the debriefing began. The chief Turk didn't seem angry or disappointed, but then again, he was just as adept as Tseng in concealing his thoughts and emotions. He was more interested in the facts of the events and what went wrong than why they had gone wrong. It was surprisingly short, as Veld only seemed to be corroborating Dante's imput with whatever the rest of the team had said before. In the end, Veld asked the only question not directly linked to the case:

"And how are you holding up?"

Dante made brief eye contact with both Tseng and Veld in less a second before averting his gaze at the side.

"Um. Fine, I guess."

Veld took a deep breath. "I know the feeling. It wasn't easy for me the first time either. For any of us."

Dante nodded.

"Unfortunately, the classified nature of the case means that we cannot send you to psychological support as SOLDIERs would," Tseng said, breaking the silence he had kept all that time. "But I believe that if you have the need to talk, your partners, well, most of them, would be willing to help."

Finally, Veld extracted a folder from his desk and began reading aloud: "Sharpe Altodis, age 23, from south Mideel. Rejected by both SOLDIER and the Infantry division once a year since he was fifteen, first due to age, then due to his clear psychopathic tendencies. After his last rejection some months ago he jumped from job to job for the past few months until he began working as a drug dealer for a gang. His sharp wits and brutality moved him quickly up the ranks until he became personal bodyguard of our target last night. Blindly loyal, quick to anger." Veld closed the file and slid it to Dante across the desk. "He is also your target. Our sources say he has gone off the grid –not that there's much of a grid in the slums- so when you see him, eliminate him. Understood?"

"Yes sir." Dante said flatly.

"Judet thinks this blunder is proof enough you are unable to keep your cool in stressing situations and should be discharged immediately. Then again, she says that on a daily basis about anyone who-"

The sound of someone tripping and falling to the floor on the other side of the office preceded Judet yelling at the top of her lungs: "Freyra! Why is that mop still here!?"

"Just Fire it away if it bothers you so much, yo. No, wait! I was joking! No! Not with the printer cable! Ouch! Ouch!" Unintelligible banter went on.

"As I was saying," Veld went on. "Your record so far shows promise. Tseng and the rest taught you well, so put that knowledge to use and find him. We cannot afford under any circumstances that the public knows Shinra has people like us in the payroll."

"Understood."

"You are dismissed. Return to activities immediately and submit your report of the events."

"Yes, sir."

Dante had barely stood up when Emma walked in with her face contorted in alarm. "Sir! We have a situation!"

"We have many situations on our hands on a daily basis, Emma." Veld said calmly while pouring coffee from a jar. "You're going to have to be more specific."

"There's a civilian outside who just came asking for us, saying he 'wants in' to the spy/assassin gig," Emma relayed, air quotes and all.

Veld's mechanical, prosthetic arm crushed the mug into porcelain shards. Still, to Dante's amazement, no amount of surprise or any other emotion could be seen in his face.


"Ok. I'm going to ask this once and only once," Judet said to their guest in her threatening voice, "who are you and who sent you!?"

"Name's Chuck and I came by myself!" he said brightly.

They had all moved to the main area of the office and sat a short, thin, blond teenager in a chair at the center, between all desks. As soon as all the other Turks arrived at the scene, they began the thinly-veiled interrogation.

"No, no, NO!" Judet exclaimed. "You don't come into the Shinra HQ and just ask for the Turks!"

"Judet, you are not helping!" Veld said while commanding his subordinate to take a seat. "Let's start from the beginning. Who are you?"

"Chuck," he answered with a smile.

"I suppose that's short for 'Charles'."

"For Chrarles, actually. Mum and dad didn't notice there was a typo in my birth certificate until the following day. They decided that it would be better to keep it as it was so that I would have a unique name, but of course, it just throws people of the chair, so everyone just calls me Chuck."

Freyra stared at the kid and blinked at a headache-revealing pace.

"Ok, Chuck. Where are you from? Where are your parents?"

"I'm from Bone Village. My mum and dad are still there 'cuz they could not abandon their post. They are merchants, you see; so if they were to leave the shops, there would be no one to direct the place and everything would be utter chaos! I mean, the foremen can handle so much, but running everything smoothly requires an extra bit of attention. This is really good! Can I have some more?" He asked while looking at the bottom of his empty coffee cup.

"Nope! No more coffee for you!" Emma said while taking the cup out of his hands and giving it to Alvis to dispose of. "Why did you give the kid coffee?" She whispered to the rookie.

"Make up your minds! Do I serve or do I not serve coffee?"

Veld continued: "so, why did you come here?"

"In less than fifteen words, please!" Cissnei said while drumming her fingers on her desk.

"Huh. Let's see." Chuck thought for a moment. "I wanna join the Turks and become a spy/assassin and have great, action-packed adventures! Oh shoot! Those were sixteen! Can I try again? Does 'action-packed' count as one?"

But no one was paying attention anymore. Although all of the Turks were silent, several questions were being shot across the room with only eyebrow and lip movements.

"And tell me Chuck, where did you hear that the Turks are assassins?"

"I read it online! In the covert-add for recruits!"

The incredible claim took everyone by surprise.

"The… What?" Balto asked.

"That's it! I'm waterboarding the truth out of him!"

"What? Tseng, no!" Veld yelled at his second in command, who was already reaching for a water materia on the storage cabinet.

Judet continued as Elena wrestled the materia out of Tseng's hands: "we do not run any adds for recruits."

"You don't!? Then… Are all the stories fake!?" Chuck asked as a child would after learning that the Tooth Fairy wasn't real.

"What stories!?" Judet asked.

Their guest reached under the chair and pulled a backpack. Dante could not help notice that it was emblazoned with a private high school's coat of arms. From within, Chuck produced sets of stapled pages that he began giving to the people in the room. Everyone began reading.

"Sweet Minerva!" Cissnei exclaimed.

"No. No. No NO!" Tseng yelled as he passed pages frantically.

"Wait a minute… These! These stories are-!?" Dante said after he noticed something very familiar written in one.

"They are our missions! Since years ago!" Freyra said. "How the hell are those out in public!?"

The stories featured an elaborate novelization of most, if not all, of the Turks missions. More worrying was that the characters depicted were obviously based on each one of them. Granted, some events had been overly dramatized and their names had been changed but it was by no means hard to pinpoint which Turk was whom.

"I suppose you must be chief Verdot and you his second-in-command Tzon," Chuck said.

"I suppose we are," Veld conceded while flipping a page that described his descent into opioid abuse at the loss of his family.

"Cool! Oh-oh! Let me guess!" He started pointing to each of the Turks: "you must be Swanna the intrusive photographer; Axel the sexual deviant redhead; Crass the stoic one with the glasses; Elda the shotgun maniac; Judith the tough forewoman that secretly cares about everyone; Tina and Terra the crazy blonde sisters; Virgil the arsonist; Togo the sword master; Akimbo the one with two guns and Simon the rookie."

"Yo, sexual deviant!?"

"I'm not an arsonist!"

"Simon? That the best they came up with? Sounds like a chipmunk name!"

The office broke in unintelligible banter as people began pointing fingers about a theoretical breach of secrecy and accusations of secrets told in confidence now out in the open. Pretty soon, the office descended into chaos. Desks were overturned, weapons aimed and materia readied as suspicions of treason arose among the Turks. Not even Veld's calls for attention were enough. Chuck on the other hand was still sitting in the middle of the office, eyes glowing with the emotion of meeting his not-so-distant childhood heroes AND being present in one of those often-cited battle royals that occasionally broke in the Turk's office. If that kid had had a golden retriever tail, it would have been wagging like crazy.

Finally, a cold wind preceded the summon of Shiva in the enclosed space and soon, the office's temperature plummeted enough to calm down it's dwellers. After Veld dismissed the ice goddess, he called everyone's attention.

"Let us not begin pointing fingers! We need to figure out how these came out and eliminate the leak! Now, given everyone's reaction, do you honestly think any one of you would risk being exposed like that?"

Weapons were lowered at the logical statement.

"But we are all trained assassins/spies! We could be lying!" Freyra said.

Weapons were readied again, aiming disrupted by the collective shivering in the cold office.

"No, no! The Chief's right y'all! If somebody ain't'there, then she's more than likely t'culprit!" Ruluf said, teeth chattering. His halfway-open shirt was not helping him remain warm.

"Why do you assume it was a woman!?" Freyra yelled.

"Why didya'assume I ate your muffin th'other day!?"

"Ahw. You do still like each other!" Chuck said, "that's why you resumed having you nightly escapades in chapter 84!"

"What!?" everyone said. Freyra and Ruluf both aimed their weapons at the kid.

"Y-y-you brat!" Freyra said. Her face red with a blush that was not cold-induced.

"What's going on here!" Emma said. "I'm usually the first to know the juicy details of everyone's private lives! WHY was I not aware!?"

"See! Ruluf's onto something!" Cissnei said. "Kid! Tell everyone the darkest secret they have published." She said while gathering the scattered chapters of their misadventures and giving them to the teenager. "If anyone is not named, we can assume they spilled the beans!"

"Cissnei! No!" Reno yelled. "There are things about me one should never know, yo!"

"Like that you contour your abs?" Chuck said.

"GAAAH!" Reno yelled in despair and curled down on the floor.

"Or that Togo's glasses don't have any prescription?"

Balto cleared his throat nervously.

"Chief! Stop this madness!" Elena pleaded.

"Or that Swanna is the president of the Puppy Love fan club and bought the highest-ever-paid item at the shop?"

"Ok! Zip it kid. We get it!" Tseng said before any of his own dirty laundry was made public.

"Wasn't it easier to just ask where this is being published and track down the author?" Dante said pragmatically.

"Hmm. Yeah, that sounds way easier," Judet conceded. She reached for Elena's laptop, dusted the frost from the keyboard and gave it to Chuck. "Tell us were all this came from. Now!"

Chuck typed a website, loaded a few screens and showed them a profile page in a website.

"Who the hell is 'GelishLover40'?" Emma asked. Tseng however, had already extended a cable and plugged it to the laptop. From his own station he began opening secure server after secure server. After some minutes of shivering wait, he announced:

"The posts came from inside the company building!"

"Ugh, what a cliché!" Alvis said.

"There are hundreds of computers! How are we gonna-" Freyra began.

"Terminal 326, located at… The reception desk?" Tseng said.

. . .

A collective gasp ensued.

"Celia the receptionist!?" Cissnei said in shock.

"Dant-no. Ruluf, Freyra, Rude. You know what to do," Veld ordered.

"With pleasure!" Freyra said as Ruluf pulled a suppressor from his desk and began screwing it to the end of one of his gun's barrel. The three Turks left the room decisively. Chuck followed with his innocent gaze and dared ask:

"Are they gonna. You know," he made a gun-to-head gesture.

"Gyahh!" Judet yelled. "What about him!? He already knows too much!"

"We can't let him walk out of this. We can't possibly keep him, either," Balto said, cleaning the fog formed on his cosmetic glasses.

"We could try… I mean, how old are you? Seventeen?" Emma asked.

"No! I'm sixteen… … Almost…"

"Good Gaia! He's a frikkin' child!"

"N-no! I'm tougher than I look! I can fight!" He ducked and produced a set of nunchaku from his backpack.

"Drop that before you hurt yourself, yo!" Reno promptly slapped the weapon out of his hand. "Don't take it the wrong way kid, but at the very least, recruits should have fully-grown pubic hair!"

"Tsk, says the one who shaves it all," Chuck pouted. Reno made his EMR crackle threateningly.

"What now, chief? It's you call," Tseng asked.

Veld and the others looked at the intruder.

"Agents Cissnei and Dante: escort Chuck out of the building."

"But-!"

"No buts. Under any other circumstance I would have ordered something very different. This situation should have never happened and I'm sorry you got involved into it."

As Balto grabbed a fistful of Chuck's jacket's back to force him to stand up, Tseng announced: "We'll be monitoring your activities. If you call too much attention to yourself or whatever you saw, heard or talked about here, you'll be meeting us again in not-so-friendly terms."

Judet and Emma examined Chuck's backpack and confiscated every printed chapter in his possession, along with his nunchaku. Elena, on the other hand, took pity of him and added a sandwich and some snacks. As Cissnei and Dante began walking him out of the door, one of the office's phones began ringing.

"Yello, the Turks here, you name'em, we pop 'em. What can I do you-oh! Shit!" Reno covered the microphone side and handled it to Veld while whispering "It's Sephiroth!"

Veld gave a poisoned gaze to Reno for his indiscretion and pulled the phone towards him. Shards of ice and frost crackled and snowed on the glistening carpet as the spiral cord extended towards the chief.

Cissnei and Dante walked out of the office and towards an elevator with Chuck. During the long climb down, Cissnei broke the silence:

"Look kid. It's easier this way. Go back to your parents, live a nice life. You have the opportunity to make it happen."

"I don't wanna just 'live a nice life'. I'm sick and tired of being a good son. To always behave perfectly because dad wants to run for mayor and-"

"Rich kid with solved life wanting to get some new kicks out of life? Where have I heard that one before?" Cissnei said with a smug smile.

"Ah, zip it Cissnei. Look kid, you don't know what you'd be getting into. Just…" Dante took a deep breath, "go back to where you came from."

"Is this the part were the battle-hardened experts try to convince me out of it?" Chuck said with a snort. Dante grabbed two fistfuls of Chuck's jacket and pushed the blond against the wall of the elevator.

"Yes, yes it is!"

"Dante!" Cissnei exclaimed in surprise.

"Look! No matter how you try to put it, it is not worth it! I've been shocked, cut, burned, stabbed, shot, frozen, injected, beaten and magically resuscitated far. Too. Many. Times!" Chuck looked at him with scared, wide eyes. "I though this is what I wanted but…" His voice broke in the end "…I was just fooling myself." Dante eased the grip. "Go back to your home and don't come back."

The elevator door opened and the Turk all but pushed the teen through the entrance hall. At the main desk, Celia was nowhere to be seen.

"Go, now." Dante said after they had crossed the main door.

The Turks watched Chuck walk dishearten down the steps and towards the main street of Sector Zero.

"Must be nice," Cissnei said.

"What is?"

"Having a choice. I came from an orphanage; you know? Back then, the Turks would bother with finding children with no family. That way, you wouldn't be missed if something happened to you. Balto and Rude practically grew here." Cissnei shifted her weight a little. "Once Avalanche started gathering followers and many agents got KIA, Heidegger ordered to scrap the long-term recruitment and training program. Emma and Freyra were some of the firsts around here that were brought in that way. Reno and Ruluf were members of some gang that we disbanded years ago."

"Some… Of the firsts?" Dante asked.

"Turks have come and gone. Over time, you don't notice who is wearing the black suit anymore."

Dante lowered his gaze to see the uniform he had so come to like.

"I'm not going to report anything I heard in the elevator. Just remember, joining us is a one-way-street. You are expected to be a Turk until you die. There's only one way out before that," she inhaled and shifted her tone into one more alike Elena's cheerful one, "but I bet you know that already. After all, there's a grain of truth in every joke."

Behind them, the door opened and Reno and Judet came to meet them at the entrance.

"Phew! Thank Gaia we are out of that freezer, yo!"

"New orders," Judet announced.

"What is it?" Cissnei asked, back to her usual persona.

"We gotta bring the kid back, yo. Veld says he has a use for him," Reno said.


Aaaand done! And 30th chapter, too!

Sorry for the long wait without a new chapter! Work has been mad these last few months, but don't worry! If I have to take a long hiatus, I'll let you know!

I want to give special thanks to user Lady Yomi, who has been giving me countless comments and insights into this story these past few months ;)

I already have the outline for the next chapter, I hope I can finish it before the Remake hits! Who is already on the hype train!?

Thank you for reading this far!

See ya later!