"We gotta bring the kid back, yo. Veld says he has a use for him," Reno said.
"Where's the brat?" Judet asked after noticing Cissnei and Dante were alone.
"Um, we may or may not have asked him to leave in a rather persuasive fashion," Cissnei said slowly, turning her head slightly towards Dante.
"Ugh, great. Let's go find him." Judet walked down the entrance steps and towards sector Zero.
It didn't take long before the Turks reached the train station. There, Chuck was sitting in a bench near the end of the platform. As they walked quietly towards him, Dante could not help notice a sullen and resentful look in his eyes.
Only when they stood around him did Chuck noticed their presence and turned his gaze upward to meet their eyes. His face quickly turned angry.
"What do you want now?"
"Good news, yo. We gotta bring you back," Reno announced unceremoniously.
"Reno, that's really not how it goes," Cissnei said.
"She's right," Judet pointed out. "What he's trying to say is that Chief Veld orders your presence."
"No! That's not it either!" Cissnei rebutted at their partner's complete lack of tact.
"He orders?" Chuck scoffed "Why is he bossing me around now? You made pretty clear it is in my best interest I leave."
"What my partners are trying to say is that there has been a new development and there's something you may be able to help us with," Dante said.
"But you just said-!"
"Never mind what he said!" Cissnei interrupted. "You have to come with us."
"And what if I don't?" Chuck challenged. His answer came in the form of a thick black fabric bag that covered his head from behind.
Chuck's unconscious body hit the carpet of the Turks' office with an alarmingly loud thud.
"Seriously?" Tseng asked.
"What? I was not in the mood, yo!" Reno said, still panting and sweaty from potato-carrying Chuck all the way back.
"Just to be clear, I wanted to persuade him to come voluntarily," Cissnei clarified.
"Me too," Dante said.
"Not me; I was already readying a Sleep spell when Reno zapped him out cold," Judet said.
Veld sighed. "Get some smelling salts and bring a chocolate muffin, or something," he ordered to Elena and Alvis respectively.
"Ok, but you may want to slip him a tranquilizer, he's gonna be pissed," Elena said with her face inside their inventory cabinet. "Now, where did you put them, Reno?"
Muffled voices outside preceded the return of Freyra, Ruluf and Rude.
"…told you to wait for me to clear out. That stain is never coming out!"
"Calm down Freyra, th'suit's black, no one'll notice," Ruluf said as he opened the door.
"Mission accom-what the hell!?" The brunette exclaimed at the sight of Chuck's handcuffed, bag-blinded body on the floor and then to Reno's sweaty forehead and extended EMR on his pocket.
"Man! We leave fo' thirty minutes 'n' ya bludgeon him t'death!?" Ruluf said in disbelief.
"Huh. Your turn, partner," Rude said before giving Balto a couple of shovels covered in freshly-moved soil.
"He was a kid! I thought you we gonna scare him away!"
"Um, Freyra…" Cissnei began.
"We may do all sorts of crazy shit, but murdering kids!?" Freyra said.
"Calm down, he's not dead!" Emma said reassuringly.
After updating their partners on the new situation, Veld had Rude take off the handcuffs and prompt Chuck against a desk and wake him up. The bald man crushed a vial of smelling salts and waved the cotton-impregnated envelope near the blonde's nose.
Chuck squirmed hard at the smell and was quickly rendered awake. He looked around, trying to piece together what had happened and when he did, opened his eyes in amazement.
"You kidnapped me!" He said enthusiastically. Chuck then remembered he was supposed to be angry at the Turks and regretted being a fan-boy about his predicament almost immediately.
"Good news," Veld began, "there is something you can help us with!"
"Make up your minds! Do you want me or not!?"
"See Chuck: life is never a straightforward thing." Emma said before proceeding to sit in the floor next to the boy. "There are moments when…"
"Oh for the love of-!" Judet yelled at the sight. "Just say it! Why do we have to dilly-dally around the request!?"
"Judeeeet…" Veld said in an exasperated tone.
"He clearly wanted in!"
"Said Judet about his many non-existent suitors," Balto snickered.
"Now, listen you four-eyed…!"
"Shut up! We'll do it my way!" Emma said above her partner's bickering. She stood up and began declaiming dramatically: "Chuck! We need you! We need you for a job only you can help us with! A job that may put your life at risk! A job that will forever change the way you see the world! A job that will tear down everything that you thought was right and built it back up! A job filled with pain, anger and all sorts of sensual adventures!"
"Of what…!?" Tseng exclaimed.
"So now, Chuck. Ye who cometh seeking adventure! Will you join us!?"
"Yes!" Chuck answered without giving a second thought.
"Will you do as a true Turk and always fulfill your mission!?" Emma proclaimed not unlike a cult leader.
"HELL YES!" He yelled with a wide smile, eyes glowing with the tears of overflowing emotion.
"Good! Sign here!" Elena said and gave him a pile of contracts to sing, along with a pink pen with a fluffy decoration on top.
"Huh… That was easier!" Veld said in amazement: Chuck was stamping his signature on all the contracts Elena was handling him, not even bothering with reading the titles.
"Told you so," Emma said with a smug smile.
"Now, can we cut to the part where you explain why do we need him?" Freyra said, drumming her fingers on top of her desk.
"Wait, wait…" Tseng said while peeking above Chuck's shoulder. Once he had signed the 'release of liability' (in triplicated), Tseng announced: "OK. Now he's a Turk." He reached for the chocolate muffin Alvis had brought and gave it to their new recruit: "congratulations, here's your welcome cake!"
"Hey! How come I didn't get cake!?" Dante exclaimed.
"Pfft. Still better than a shave and lemon juice," Alvis scoffed. He immediately started scratching his chest, as uncomfortable memories surged back up.
"Cool!" Chuck said and began munching at the chocolate pastry. "What do you want me to do?"
"Infiltrate. Spy. Report back. Simple as that," Tseng stated a bit too matter-of-factly.
"Wait! How is an infiltration mission easy, yo!?"
"I agree with him. Infiltration missions are bad for first timers. Remember Dante's?" Rude said casually.
"Indeed they are. But this time we have no choice, because we have to infiltrate the Shinra military academy!" Veld announced.
"Huh?" Ruluf exclaimed.
"Apparently, there is evidence for contraband among the cadets. We need someone on the inside to gather intel so that we can apprehend the culprits," Tseng explained.
"And how is army discipline our job? More importantly, why did Sephiroth asked? Isn't that Heidegger's problem?" Freyra said.
"Indeed it is. And Sephiroth informed me Heidegger ordered him to ask us to handle this."
"Pfft. Talk about roundabout," Dante scoffed.
"Indeed. The General may be as interested as Heidegger in disciplining his men, but he hates playing middleman for someone else's pettiness," Tseng concluded.
"Heidegger is clearly doing all that to mess with us," Balto pointed out.
"Yes, he is. He is still pushing to disband our department and put it directly under his control. That is why we need to succeed, otherwise, our autonomy will be further compromised," Veld told his agents.
"All right then. Why do we need him?" Judet pressured.
"We plan to enlist him, of course! Dante has been too long here to infiltrate successfully," Tseng stated. "Arguably, we could've used Alvis but someone decided to send him looking for non-existent people all over the Shinra HQ and now he is easily recognizable as a Turk."
Reno and Ruluf looked elsewhere at the accusation.
"But Chuck is perfect!" Emma realized, "nobody knows him and has no prior training, so we can sneak him among the recruits without arising suspicion AND he gets free basic training so that we don't have to start from scratch! Chief, you are a genius!"
"Well, I don't like to brag, but you don't become Chief overnight," Veld said in an unusual display of smugness.
"Aren't we missing a crucial detail? How are we gonna get the info from him? If someone sees him talking to Turks… That's bound to arise suspicion!" Balto said.
"True. We can't even be wandering close by. Our mere presence will scare any wrongdoers into good behavior."
"That part is easy Cissnei. We'll have him summoned a few days a week. If he leaves with a valid excuse, nobody should get suspicious," Veld finished.
The Turks went quiet for a while, thinking over the plan and looking for obvious loopholes in their logic. Dante thought that Veld's plan was, by all accounts, more reasonable and streamlined than Reno's overtly complex fight club infiltration plan.
"Well, let's begin immediately. Emma and Cissnei: go to Uniforms and Equipment and get Chuck a grunt uniform. Freyra and Elena: we need a backstory for him. Rude and Balto: prepare the documentation needed to 'transfer' him from Junon. Dante: floor plans, building layouts, personnel schedules. I want to know everything that goes around the military academy; and take Alvis. Move it!"
"Sir!" They all answered unanimously.
"As for you," Veld said to Judet, Reno and Ruluf, "assess just how much he can actually fight," and that said, the Chief pulled from his drawer Chuck's previously confiscated nunchaku.
"Finally! I was fearing we'd have to wait weeks before beating him, yo!"
"Before what?" Chuck asked naïvely.
"Do we take th'protection gear?" Ruluf said with a hint of irony.
"What for?" Judet said with a wicked grin as she pushed Chuck out of the office.
Dante took Alvis to one of the computer terminals in the office and using his advanced privileges, began showing the rookie how to search and recover information from the vast database they had access to.
"What do you think?"
"About what?" Dante asked, sifting through construction plans for the barracks Chuck was going to be in.
"I mean, I'm really not one to judge but… Don't you think the kid was hoodwinked into this?" Alvis whispered at the end.
"That is really not up to us. It was his choice."
"Yeah but. I mean… I got into this to save my own ass. If I were not here I'd be risking getting stabbed in a gang fight or…" Alvis looked elsewhere and unconsciously rubbed his right hand over the inside of his left elbow, "…worse."
Dante stopped typing.
"All I'm saying is… It kinda pisses me of you know? He had a roof over his head. Why throw that away?"
"I'm… Sure he had his reasons."
Dante went on typing a bit too forcefully.
Some hours later, the Turks started to gather back at the office with Veld's requests. The Chief Turk was making some calls, informing the platoon's commanding officer of Chuck's imminent transfer and faxing him a copy of the rookie's forged papers, complete with his new identity. Finally, the 'battle abilities assessment committee' (as Rude called it) returned, with a shocking surprise: Reno had a long bruise that went from his jaw to above his eyebrow.
"I'm sorry! I really am!" Chuck said behind Reno.
"Please tell me you had an accident on the stairs," Tseng said.
Judet started cackling: "Nope! The kid can hold on his own!"
"Y'all should'a… Y'all should'a seen his face! Oh man…! When… When… Chuck bitch-slapped him with th'nunchaku!" Ruluf said between laughs, and promptly dropped to the floor, bent over by laughter.
"Go on! Laugh all you want, yo!" Reno said with a pout, pulling a cold soda can from the office's cooler and putting it to his face.
"Sorry! I trained with it for months! I didn't wanna come here without any skill!" Chuck went on.
"Damn, Reno! What happened? Did your husband beat you again?" Emma said as she walked in with Cissnei, putting down the box with Chuck's uniform and helmet.
"Ha-ha-ha," Reno said with contempt, already regretting underestimating Chuck.
"You know what they say: nunchaku and Chuck can break my bones…" Dante said over the large floor plan he and Alvis were putting together with adhesive tape.
"All right people, cut it out," Veld said. "Now Chuck, the first rule of infiltration is to always get into character. Elena…"
The blonde stood up and rolled a large tack board with notes, maps and a mess of red threads, she cleared her throat and began: "Chuck, your new name is Zidane Tribal..."
"-and as usual, I want to point out that anything after that is unnecessary," Freyra interjected, frankly exhausted of Elena's overly complicated backstory.
"Shh! The master crafter is at work! Where was I? Oh yeah, so: you were born a sunny day of May in a poor but happy family that belonged to a theatre entourage. After they refuse to pay pizzo to some goons in a shady town, your parents are killed on stage while you watched from behind the curtain. Distraught and…" Elena went on for fifteen minutes with her elaborate novella, making very clear to everyone she enjoyed creating fictional personas.
After Elena finished, Cissnei and Emma had Chuck change into his trooper uniform, especially shortened to fit his smaller frame. After they filled him on the details and gave the blond a crash course in military life, Tseng and Dante came up with a plan for meeting him: Chuck was going to be stationed somewhere in the middle of the barracks to listen everyone around and every two days, near lights out, he would have to sneak out to the stair shaft and report to whichever Turk was there. After some final words from Veld and Elena double-checking Chuck had his fictional identity memorized, Ruluf and Rude escorted the new member to the barracks. Seconds after he was gone, Judet decided to jinx it:
"Oh… We are so gonna regret this…"
The following morning, Balto and Dante were assigned to go check everything was going smoothly. Since -at least officially- the Turks handled SOLDIER selection, seeing them once in a while would be seen as normal occurrence. For added effect, they wore dark glasses borrowed from Rude's seemingly endless pocket supply. From the higher floor windows, they could easily spot Chuck's blond hair and discretely watched him doing jumping jacks and running laps.
The following day, Freyra and Elena were assigned to meet him at the stairs for debriefing. Nobody was surprised when they began communicating bad news:
"The troopers threw him a what?" Tseng asked.
"'Blanket party'," Elena said with a smile.
"T'hell's that?" Ruluf asked.
"Beats me," Freyra said dismissively, "not as much as he was, but you get the gist."
"A 'blanket party' is a form of hazing where you are beaten with socks," Emma explained.
"That doesn't sound too bad," Judet commented.
"Socks stuffed with soap bars," Emma clarified.
"How would they-Ooooh… Ouch…" Judet made a face that denoted a certain degree of empathy Dante was not aware she was capable of.
"Why would they do that!?" Tseng asked Emma.
"That's the magic of military hazing! Sometimes you just don't know. Maybe he was too short, maybe he didn't finish something in time and got the platoon collectively punished or maybe it's 'cuz he's blond."
"Or maybe, because he is the new kid on the block," Alvis said bitterly. "Heard bullying happens."
"Does it now, yo?" Reno said sarcastically.
"Well, that'll toughen him up a little. Any info on what actually concerns us?" Veld asked.
"Not yet, he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary either," Emma said.
"Well, no surprise there, it's been two days. Proceed as planned."
Dante and Balto continued to wander around the academy the following days, observing from afar and pretending to take notes for possible SOLDIER candidates. Over the following week, the Turks went to meet Chuck at the stair shaft and then reported back to the rest. Sometimes there was some progress, such a shady conversations or money exchanged in the showers, but more often than not there were reports of…
"…so they stripped him and had him run naked all the way back to the barracks!?" Tseng yelled at Reno and Rude's report.
"Oh no… Did they return his uniform?" Cissnei asked.
"Pretty sure they didn't," Rude answered.
"Who cares about the uniform? There's a serious hazing culture in there!" Tseng yelled.
"I care about the uniform! There was a 500 Gil voucher on my name for that helmet!" Cissnei said.
"People, please! I'll report everything to the President as soon as we have results. If I show empty-handed to a board meeting, Heidegger will be at our throats!"
Another week went by. Fortunately, Chuck seemed to get closer and closer to the source of contraband, whatever it was, as the original report and investigation request was purposely vague about it. Finally, it was Dante and Cissnei's turn to debrief Chuck at the stairs. Unfortunately, it appeared things had gone from bad to worse because he showed up to their meeting with a black eye and…
"What happened to your eyebrow?" Cissnei asked.
"Uh, nothing… I just… Fell…"
"That is bullshit! How do you shave half your eyebrow during a fall?" Dante asked.
"I-I don't wanna talk about it. OK?" Chuck said with a pout and tearing up a bit. Two weeks in the military academy had been enough to crush his cheerful personality.
"Well, unfortunately for you, that's what we are here for. If you don't-" Cissnei closed in and squinted, focusing on the blond's mouth, "…Are you wearing lip gloss?"
Chuck broke down in sobs. "They… They… They said I was too pretty for a guy," he managed to say, rubbing out the waxy substance with the back of his hand.
"What the…! We gotta tell Veld to stop this," Dante said to Cissnei.
"N-no! I-I'm a Turk now, and I have to complete my mission! No matter how long it takes!"
"What? No! This is cruel! I mean, I've had my share of questionable actions, but this is downright barbaric!" Cissnei exclaimed.
"No! I'll manage. I just need to know what exactly it is I'm looking for! There are some dirty mags and cigarretes, but none of those appear to be contraband," he said with steadfast resolution.
"Thing is, we don't know either. Heidegger is being an absolute ass about the info," Cissnei scoffed.
"What? Why?" Chuck asked, still unaware of the constant power struggle happening among the heads of department.
"He probably intends to misdirect the investigation," Dante concluded. "He insists he already send the dossier, but it clearly hasn't arrived. Either way, our hands are tied."
"He's right Chuck. Until we know what we are looking for, we need you to act as up until now."
"In any case, take this," Dante handled his partner a small ballpoint pen. "If you slide the clip, it will begin recording audio. If able, collect decisive evidence of wrongdoing. If you are in danger, click the plunge three times in a row. Either will send your position and audio feed to our PHS's."
"Oh cool! A spy-pen!"
"Hold on a little more. This is almost over," Cissnei said reassuringly.
To their surprise, the information they were looking had arrived at the office in their absence: Veld was holding a crumpled folder in shaking hands. On one of their desks lay a yellow envelope with postal seals that described a voyage all the way to the base at the Icicle Inn and back to Midgar.
"That stupid, fat-ass, bearded, imbecile!" Veld spat after reading the report. "He has been leading us in circles for days!"
"Now what chief?" Balto began. "Heidegger is clearly setting this whole endeavor to fail and make sure the blame's on us."
"I say we enter the barracks tonight and search everything! We five can handle this!" Judet said, gesturing to the Turks present at the moment and reaching for the report. "We already know we are looking for… Wait…" she re-read the paper. "Are you kidding me!? This is what we've been looking for!?"
"As I said. This whole endeavor is just to mess with us," Veld said, regaining some composure.
"Yo, that means we can't enter unless we make sure there is contraband there. Otherwise..."
A series of beeping interrupted Reno. Not only his, but everyone's PHS was beeping incessantly, a red LED blinking in synchrony with the sounds. Dante opened his and listened. Chuck was speaking agitated, clearly running away from something.
"Sorry! Sorry! I just wanted to go to the bathroom-ugh!" A brief scuffle was heard.
"Get over here you little bitch!"
"We'll have to teach you not to lurk in private meetings!"
The voices grew quieter and quieter, the pen clearly unnoticed to the attackers.
"That good enough for evidence, yo?"
"Yes. Now MOVE!" Veld ordered. Not waiting to be told again, the Turks began a mad dash towards the barracks. On the way down, they called every other Turk not in a mission at the moment and informed them of what had happened. Minutes later, they arrived at the barrack's entrance, where a couple of confused guards stood in silence as five Turks entered the area without even stating what they were there for. Almost immediately, they found an officer casually walking the area: Judet wasted no time in entering her threatening mode and grabbing the man by the red scarf.
"The Turks are in charge now. We are about to conduct a thorough inspection of this place. Everyone is to stand in attention, understood?"
"Y-yes ma'am!" After Judet let him go, the man ran to a switchboard in the wall and after pressing some buttons, illuminated the entirety of the barracks. Dante could not deny Judet the woman was a vision of efficiency, even when she lacked so much in many other areas.
"All right bitches! The Turks are in the house, yo!" Reno announced cockily, banging his EMR on the steel of the bunk beds to force the men not woken by the lights out of their sleep.
"Everyone, stand at ease in front of your bunks! We are conducting an inspection, if there's any contraband in your possession, come forward with it now! We'll not be lenient later on," Judet commanded.
"…15, 16, 17…" Dante counted in his head. Finally, bunk 18. Chuck was missing. He scanned the rest of the beds and took notice: "Four absent!" The Turk said to no one in particular, but the rest caught on soon.
Still pretending they didn't know a thing, Cissnei began reading from a list found near the door: "Were are 18, 28, 31, and 52?" She asked across the room to the officer at the entrance.
"I don't know ma'am! Officer Anthurus is in charge of this barrack!"
"Find-"
"All right people! Drop you pants! Cavity search is about to begin!" A recently-arrived Elena interrupted loudly from the door.
"That is not how that works…" Rude whispered to her.
"Ah, shoot!"
Judet directed a toxic glance to Elena and continued: "find Anthurus and order him to report to us immediately! You three, find the missing ones!"
"Understood," Cissnei said and walked through the door on the other side of the barrack, along with Reno and Dante.
"Where to, yo?"
"Chuck said something about the bathroom, let's start there," Dante said. There was a large communal bathroom and shower area shared by every two barracks. Logic said the one closest was a good place to start. They didn't even reach the door: halfway between the barrack and the shower doors, the Turks found a half-open crate hastily pushed against the wall of the long corridor. A quick visual assessment of its contents revealed it was the contraband evidence they were looking for.
"You know, I'm not even surprised," Dante said after seeing the interior.
"Well, tends to happen. We are still missing Chuck, though." Cissnei opened her PHS and pushed the radio button: "found the stuff, hallway to the right. Send someone over to secure it."
After some static, Freyra answered: "copy that, on my way."
"What now?" Dante asked.
"You tell me. You looked at the layout," Cissnei said.
Dante turned around to examine the area. The only exits lead to either the showers or to the other barracks. If Chuck had been taken, it had not been in front of another fifty possible witnesses.
"Shower," he finally decided. Near the door, Reno placed his hand on the wall and began casting from the Sense materia.
"Tsk. Area is too big, yo. Can't tell for sure how many from this distance," Reno whispered after giving up.
"Well, only one way of doing this, then," Dante said and pushed the door open. The Turks stormed the room.
"Department of Administrative Research!" Cissnei yelled, turning on the lights, while Reno and Dante dashed forward.
"Oh shit!" Someone exclaimed: four men were squatting in a semi-circle and stood up at the sudden intrusion.
"Hands were we can see them!" Cissnei said.
"Um, sorry ma'am. We were just talking with my subordinate," one said with false security: missing officer Anthurus was along with the three missing cadets. Behind them, Chuck (with a fresh bruise on the face and a split lip) stood up shakily. "Zidane here had a rough day at training and we were-"
"Cut the bullshit!" Dante yelled.
"Hey! Easy, yo," Reno said to his partner in a hushed tone. Then and there, Dante noticed he had unholstered his own handgun at some point and was aiming at the officer.
"Agent, come with us," Cissnei ordered.
"Agent?" One of the troopers said.
"Oh fuck!" another swore under his breath, connecting the dots.
"Dante, take him back. Send someone over." Cissnei ordered.
The Turk sighed. "Understood. Chuck, let's go." He holstered his weapon and directed the rookie out. After sending Balto to assist Cissnei and Reno, and with Rude carrying the crate filled with evidence behind them, Dante escorted Chuck back to the office.
"What in Ifrit's hell!?" Was all Veld managed to say at Chuck's appearance.
"Um. Mission accomplished? Sir?" He answered shyly.
Veld stood in silence a moment. "Um. Yes. Mission accomplished."
"I'll go handle the rest downstairs," Tseng said and promptly left.
A few minutes of awkwardness followed while Dante reported the initial findings. When he was finished, the Chief spoke: "I'm sorry for the way this turned out," Veld said flatly. "Agent Dante will escort you to the medical wing. Rude, have Human Resources prepare a temporary room while we sort out his permanent housing. Now, if you excuse me, I'll go have a talk with Heidegger."
"Sir!" They both answered.
Dante began the walk to the medical wing with the blond a few steps behind. He asked with all his might the rookie didn't say a word, but the Planet seemed to conspire against him:
"Um… About what you said in the elevator…" The blonde began.
Dante inhaled silently. "What about it?"
"I, um... Think you were on to something," he said with a chuckle. "I guess now it's a good moment to say 'I told you so', eh?" he said dejectedly.
"No, I won't." Dante said. "I guess… In the end the only thing that matters is that this was ou-your choice. The only thing left to do is to live our choices and proceed as best as you can."
"Hmmm. I guess so," he rubbed his hand over his inflamed lips. "Thanks, though."
"What for?"
"Being honest."
"Don't sweat it. I was trying to scare you away," Dante said with a lopsided smile. He wondered how Cissnei managed to pull this mood changes so quickly.
"All right. I won't tell if you don't."
They boarded the elevator and began a descent to the hospital area.
"Hey, Dante. What was in that crate?"
"Do you really wanna know?"
"Well, yeah! I want to know what this was all about!"
"Soap."
"… … Huh?"
"And shampoo."
"… … … You're kidding, right?"
"Nope. They were trafficking soap." Dante went on to explain the missing report: diminishing returns for the military base's Commissary, specifically regarding personal hygiene products. Since the shop could not afford loses, it was only natural to assume a competing source was at play. In short, this was a matter of a multi-billion Gil company loosing pocket cash over shitty quality soap bars.
"I'm sure you noticed the company-issued soap is crap, and the shampoo leaves your hair smelling like used car oil," Dante said. He took notice of the rookie's flabbergasted face. "You'll get used to it. My first mission was looking for plush dolls in the jungle."
Chuck finally exploded: "THEY SHAVED MY EYEBROWS OVER SOAP!?"
Ok, three things: the Remake is great, we are 8 days away from this story's 3rd Anniversary AND I mulled over this chapter for days!
I decided to post it as it is because I know I've been overworking it and because I'm sure I'm not gonna be satisfied with it. Half the original plot went to the cutting floor, as I deemed it too farfetched (even for me!)
Let me know what you think either way!
Also, a bit of shameless self-promotion: I recently posted a new story, titled "Infestation". That one started as a chapter for this story, but I decided to make it a stand-alone because I didn't want to split it into several chapters. It features the Turks (namely, Cissnei and Freyra), Zack, an unwelcomed guest and my weird hit-or-miss sense of humor! If you are in for a chuckle or two, give it a try ;)
Thank you for reading this story!