By a Fraction of a Degree

A FFVII Fanfiction work by findthetiger129

Rated T for Violence and Language.

I do not own Final Fantasy VII, or any of the characters, trademarks or likenesses from Final Fantasy VII or its spinoffs. That honor goes to Square-Enix.

A special note of appreciation for HCloudXIII over on Youtube and Dark Angel from the website, Gunshot Romance for their efforts to translate the Before Crisis game text and make the gameplay at least viewable.

And with that out of the way, we can get to the part you want to see... I hope... ^^

Part I: Crossfire

Chapter 6, What You Are in the Dark

October 4th [ ν ] – εуλ 0007, 5:15 PM

Rayleigh was about halfway to her apartment building, walking between the blades of light and shadow cast by the smaller skyscrapers she passed. Most buildings in the area were tall, but unquestionably dwarfed by the Shinra building, which was visible behind her in spite of the distance she had traversed thus far. It was still warm in spite of summer being over, but as the day's activity was dying down, and the evening rush started to thin out, she felt that cold chill up her spine that told her she was being watched. That in itself was nothing new. In the Shinra building, everyone was being watched, and they knew it. But it was rare for that phenomenon to be so pervasive as to follow her home. She looked around her, trying to locate the stalker, but it was only when she felt a clammy hand on her shoulder and whirled around to face him, that she recognized the man who had followed her. Her heart might have stopped beating. She couldn't tell.

"P-professor Hojo, what a surprise." She dug into the deepest recesses of her resolve for the least fake smile she muster, and couldn't help but think that the worst case scenario had just occurred.

"Don't be so startled doctor, I just want to have a little talk." Hojo looked very much out of place on this street, with his lank dark hair and sunken eyes behind thick glasses perched precariously at the end of his nose. He was smiling at her, but there was nothing friendly about it. If anything, it looked predatorial. It was the most dangerous thing a person could see on his face at any given time.

"Oh? What about?" Rayleigh tried to keep the tone of her voice light and airy as though they were discussing the weather.

He gestured towards an alleyway in between the two nearest skyscrapers. "It won't take long but we should at least get out of traffic first." As he guided her towards the alley, he searched around in the breast pocket of his lab coat. Once they were off the sidewalk and standing between the two buildings, he found what he was looking for and pulled it out. "I was wondering if you could tell me anything about this fascinating photo of yours."

Sure enough, as Rayleigh looked at the photo, she saw the now familiar scar from Masamune on Cloud's back. She took in the rest of the details as Hojo held it in front of her, her mind racing as she did her best to think of a good response. After a moment, she answered "Oh, him. H-he was one of our SOLDIERs from the Wutai war. Had a nasty encounter with a battalion from… oh what was it? T-the Crescent Unit. That's right."

"Interesting." Hojo's smile had not dimmed. "He couldn't possibly have come to you for a problem with the sites for his JENOVA cell implants. If he was a SOLDIER in Wutai, any concerns over those would have died before he was even sent out into the field. And yet, I can clearly see evidence of other scars here. Perhaps you could tell me about them?"

"Um… It was something personal… private…" Rayleigh was grasping at straws, trying to find the best way to end the conversation quickly.

"No Doctor, I'm not asking about why he came to you." Somehow without realizing it, Rayleigh found herself backed against the wall of the alley. Hojo hadn't rushed in to grab her, but the feeling of being trapped was excruciating. "What I'm asking is what you can tell me about the techniques used to make these scars."

"Well, the sword wound came from an instance where he was impaled, in fact, I distinctly remember seeing where the entry point occurred on his chest." Rayleigh said, gripping her bag hard as she allowed her clinical analysis to distract her, hoping it would satisfy him. Lying about surgical methodology was out of the question with the professor. He would know if she left something out, and there was always the chance maybe the clinical analysis alone would satisfy him. "As for the other scars, aside from the JENOVA implant site in the photo, there's also what appears to be an exploratory incision below the rib cage. At a guess, his previous physician had cause to inspect his kidneys or maybe even the condition of his lungs. His left lung was likely collapsed when he was run through, so that's probably why. Apparently the doctor conducting the procedure chose not to use materia in the healing process. It's entirely possible that he or she may have had a need to open them again or maybe they weren't sure if they would have to…"

"It could also be that your story about the Crescent Unit is a complete fabrication," Hojo drawled. "Honestly, my dear, did you really think I wouldn't recognize my own work when I saw it?"

Rayleigh didn't even bother trying to hide her concern for her own safety. Hojo continued to leer at her. "It's not that I'm particularly affronted by your lies…" And that was when his expression darkened to that of a Zolom ready to strike. "What bothers me is that there are little mice scurrying about and poking their noses in places they don't belong." He placed the photo back in his pocket and approached the woman, grabbing the hand she held across her chest as he pushed his own sallow face closer to hers. "Now, I don't care how you came into contact with Specimen C, or what condition it's even in at the moment, but I do care that someone is conducting studies of my work behind my back. You know the power that I wield in this company, doctor. I want my property returned to me or at least to have its location by tomorrow, or things will get very uncomfortable for you very quickly. Do I make myself clear?"

Rayleigh stared into the madman's eyes, momentarily paralyzed by fear before finally answering. "C-crystal… Professor…"

The eerie smile returned as Hojo withdrew from her personal space, using his free hand to push some of her bangs behind her ears, more a show of the control he thought he had over the situation than anything else. "Thank you, my dear. Have a nice evening." With that, the professor left the alley and disappeared.

Rayleigh stayed leaning against the wall for at least a couple of minutes, waiting for the adrenaline to fade. Finally, she stood up straight and left the alley, trying her hardest to fight down the panic that even now was threatening to overpower her again. Even harder to dispel was the question screaming through her mind over and over with each frantic step back towards her apartment. "What do I do now?"

After some feverish work on the part of the three Turks remaining at headquarters, a video feed had popped up showing a young man with blonde hair in a white business suit.

"We've got visual," Rude confirmed.

Tseng took one look at the man who was staring back at them out of the computer screen. "I knew it." Rufus simply scoffed at him as he continued. "It was you…"

Shinra's Vice President was unperturbed. "Veld's execution is scheduled for noon tomorrow. Do you think you can save him?"

"We're going to do everything we can," Tseng asserted.

Rufus smiled, his eyes half lidded, and Tseng knew that as far as this instance was concerned, their captive was the one holding all the cards right now. "I've pinpointed the exact location he's being held."

"Really?" Reno exclaimed, leaning in behind Tseng's chair so he could get a good look at their prisoner.

"Of course, and I don't mind telling you where he is either." Rufus's smile was now becoming a very pronounced smirk.

"Sir?" Rude was looking to Tseng for guidance and Reno, for once in his life, didn't seem to have words for the occasion. Tseng, meanwhile, was dealing with the fact that his thoughts were racing as he sat in his chair. Could Rufus be trusted? It was probably the only chance they had right now.

Rufus waited a moment before speaking again. "I do have a price for this information however."

"What are your conditions?" Tseng's eyes narrowed slightly. Enough to show that he was serious, but not enough to convey any other emotion. He had long ago mastered the art of a complete deadpan that would put even stone statues to shame.

Rufus scoffed again before speaking to the other two Turks. "Reno, Rude, leave us." The two looked to Tseng, the unspoken question obvious in their expressions. Upon seeing the pause, Rufus continued "I am only negotiating with Tseng on these terms." He turned his attention to his negotiating partner. "How about it Tseng, Director of the Turks?"

The silence that permeated through the empty headquarters was heavy as the standoff held for several seconds. Tseng weighed the options in his mind with the care of a chemist mixing explosive components. At last he looked to his subordinates. "Fine. Reno. Rude."

"Sir." The two exited the room.

Rufus scoffed after them one last time as they left before he began laying out his terms to Tseng, and as the Director heard him out, he couldn't help being impressed despite their current problems. It seemed that Rufus had managed, even from his prison, to out-Turk the Turks.

Freya uttered a curse as a Moth Slasher floated in behind the trooper. Neither of them seemed to have noticed Zack who had found a blind spot behind the door leading outside, but he clearly did not plan on sitting there long and was only waiting for the right moment to get the drop on their guests.

"Your friends may have escaped, but don't try to resist," the trooper growled. "We've got orders to dispatch the Turks and if you try anything funny, I'll set this thing on you."

Zack chuckled darkly as he crept up on the grunt and the robot. "Well, if you've got orders to kill her anyway, why even bother threatening her?" With an echoing *shing*, the Buster Sword cut the robot clean in half, and the trooper dropped soon after, taken out in a second downward swing.

At that point two more troopers walked in through the door, and they could see another Moth Slasher on the way. Naturally, the troopers could see Zack now, and if they hadn't been wearing helmets, Freya would have been sure their eyes were bugged out. They at least paused when they saw the Ex-SOLDIER with the frigging huge sword before one of them sounded the alarm and the other attempted to fire his gun. "Code Red! Repeat! Code Red! The subject is armed and accompanied by a SOLD…urk!" Both troopers were dispatched by Zack in a single blow, and then he waited for the Moth Slasher to enter the bar.

Realizing that this could get ugly really quick, Freya backed off and found the bartender who had wisely ducked behind the bar. "Do you have a back door to this place?" She asked.

The bartender didn't bother answering with words, but simply pointed to his right, past the restroom. Freya nodded and then called out to the SOLDIER. "Zack, we're going out this way, you go first and I'll cover us." She gestured in the direction the bartender had indicated.

Zack had destroyed the second Moth Slasher and he spared a moment to nod in her direction before backing away from the door and heading for the exit as Freya readied her shotgun to cover their retreat. As she followed Zack out the back way, three more troopers entered the building and she fired a shotgun shell in their direction, causing one of them to collapse to the ground, clutching his leg. She heard the back door open behind her and followed Zack as he crept along their escape route. By the time the detachment of troopers had gotten around the back of the building, the SOLDIER and the lady Turk were already gone.

October 4th [ ν ] – εуλ 0007, 5:30 PM

Cissnei hoped that Freya and Zack made it out of the bar all right. She and Mao had barely made it away themselves after being spotted by some troopers who'd been patrolling the area. More likely than not, actively looking for them, now that the Turks were considered enemies of the company. She reflected that now she could say she had an idea of what it had been like for Zack when he'd been on the run, though by comparison this was only a small taste of what he'd been through. They had reached a part of Sector 6 that was fortunately quiet, but unfortunately near the Honey Bee Inn. Ignoring the cat calls of a couple of the house's patrons, the Turk followed her partner down the street in search of a route back to their safe house. She and Mao would be helping in the search for Elfe of course, but with their primary concern being the safety of the support materia she carried in her pocket, naturally that would need to take precedent.

The pair made their way toward the edge of Sector 6 in silence, wary of their surroundings, and hoping they wouldn't see any further signs of Shinra troops. The setting sun cast its rays into the normally darkened slums, just low enough to illuminate the pillars and cast long shadows. The further away they got from the normal crowds, the two Turks started creeping deeper into them, away from the main thoroughfares, and soon, they were quickly navigating the alleyways. Cissnei followed Mao as he hurried across an opening between two buildings and then suddenly, he paused, holding out his right hand to stop her from going out in front of him. She noticed that he had pushed up the hilt of his katana with the thumb of his other hand which held the weapon in its sheath.

That was when she realized what she saw before her. There were three Ravens poking around in the next alley, and the twice-damned AVALANCHE SOLDIERs were all giggling madly, just as Valerie had described them. It had never been clear to her whether or not Ravens still had any semblance of their minds left. They seemed capable of following orders, and communicating if necessary, but not much else based on what her compatriot had reported upon being cleared to leave the infirmary. The two Turks pressed themselves against the wall of the building, hoping they hadn't been spotted. Mao glanced back at her, using a hand signal to tell her they were going to try and circle around. If Ravens were in the area, Fuhito might be too, and while that was good to know, it also might mean a fight. The Turks slid their way back into the alley they had been traversing, mindful of any litter or debris that might crackle under their feet if they were careless. Once they were out of sight, Cissnei turned around to watch the direction they were going while her partner covered the rear.

It was when they were almost to the gap between the buildings they were creeping behind when she heard the familiar singing of her partner's blade as it left the sheath. She spared a glance behind her to confirm what she already knew. A Raven stood in front of Mao, wielding a sword and his laughter became crazier as he anticipated the heat of battle.

Her shuriken were already in her hands, in case she needed to join the fray, but as Mao and the Raven crossed swords, she heard him growl a single word. "Go!"

Knowing better than to question the swordsman, she fled the alley, stowing her weapons again as she ran. Upon seeing a ladder up to the roof of one of the buildings she stood between, she shimmied up it with the grace of a ninja. Once she reached the top, she pushed herself into a full on run in the direction opposite the one the Ravens had come from. She had raced rooftops before, and in the slums, the buildings were often so close together that hopping from building to building was an easy task.

She cleared a gap over to the next building and slid under some air conditioning pipes before climbing up a low wall to see a slanted roof of one of the more residential buildings looming ahead of her. She didn't hesitate but took a running start and vaulted over a second low wall that separated the current building she was on from the next one. As her shoes creaked upon impact, she realized she was not alone in her parkouring. There was a second set of footfalls behind her and they didn't sound like Mao. The sounds were too heavy for the patent leather the Turks favored. These sounded more like… she swore quietly… heavy combat boots.

She spotted a flatter rooftop over another gap near one of the sector's support pillars and realized she'd probably have to use her momentum to run along that support beam in order to bridge the gap. She mentally prepared herself for the stunt and put on an extra burst of speed. Her feet left the ground as they propelled her along the horizontal beam before she grabbed a pipe that hung overhead and swung herself forward, landing in a crouch before continuing her run. She couldn't continue this forever, she knew. While she could definitely go for a long time, she knew very well that SOLDIERs could go much longer, and Ravens were essentially SOLDIERs whether they were crazy or not. Rather than allowing herself to be worn out, she needed a place to hide. Looking around as she scrambled across the roof, she didn't see anything in the immediate vicinity that might be a good location, but a couple of roofs over she saw another cluster of pipes in which she might be able to lose her pursuer.

She allowed herself to slide under another low pipe before hopping up onto another low wall and pulled herself up one handed, sparing a glance back as she went over the side. There was definitely a Raven behind her. He was on the rooftop she'd just left, and that was not good.

Once she was over the wall she pulled a hard right around a raised part of the roof that contained an access door, hopping across a gap and noting a couple of random guys in the narrow alley below. Two more roofs to go between her current location and that forest of pipes.

Now that she was closer, she recognized that some of them were actually I-beams, the girders that were holding up the infrastructure for the upper plate's water supply. Aside from the forest of smaller pipes she could now see one giant one in the center. The next roof was a little higher than the one she was on, but up ahead she saw a wall she might be able to use. Not even bothering to check behind her again, she once again leapt, allowing her feet to make contact with the wall and pulling for as much height as she could before whirling around and grabbing the side of the opposite roof. Her grip held and she pulled herself up just as she heard her pursuer landing on the rooftop she'd just left. One more to go.

This was one of the taller buildings, she could see, though it was a straight run across. It looked like the next rooftop was from another residential building, After that there was only the gap between the building and her target to worry about. She raced across her current roof and then vaulted over, grasping at the apex of the last one to steady herself before breaking into a full run. This was it. Just in front of her on the opposite side of the roof, she saw what looked like an old crane, probably abandoned down here after construction of the upper plate had been completed. That didn't matter. What mattered was that there was a cable she could use to swing across the gap, and swing she did. Securing her shoe into the hook that swung free near the roof, she pushed off just as she heard the Raven behind her land on the roof she was just about to leave. At the height of the arc, she kicked herself free, falling a few gut-clenching moments before catching herself on the riveted flange around one of the pipes. She hung there for a moment before edging around and dropping a couple of feet to a catwalk that stood suspended a little ways above the ground.

She didn't dare take the stairs, but instead slithered between the guardrails and allowed herself to drop the rest of the way down into a crouch, looking for the way forward. It looked like there was a manhole down into the sewers just ahead. It wouldn't be pretty, but if she hurried, she might be able to evade the Raven in the shadows. That was her logic anyway.

She hurried to the cover and started lifting it when suddenly there was an arm around her neck, putting her in a choke hold, and then she was suspended above the ground. She was too small to be able to do anything but kick at the air as mist swirled before her eyes. The last thing she heard before the world went dark was crazy laughter…

Several minutes after the last time Zack saw a Shinra trooper, he distinctly heard the sound of Freya's PHS buzzing. After they pulled close to one of the run-down houses in the area so they were out of sight, Freya pulled it out and answered it. As she listened to the murmuring speaker through which Zack recognized Tseng's voice, he saw relief in her expression before she answered the caller "That's good news." She listened a little more before speaking again. "Yes sir." With that, she hung up.

"What's up?" Zack asked.

"Well, we may have to wait a little longer to get back. Tseng's found Veld and they're going to get him right now. We need to secure a safe route out of the city for them."

"All right, where to?"

Freya thought for a moment. "First we need to get to the edge of the city. Follow me." She walked over to a manhole cover and lifted it up. Once it was removed, she slipped down into the hole and Zack heard her voice echo back up to him "Be sure to close it after you. We won't be coming back this way."

Being careful not to catch his sword on the edge of the hole, Zack eased down inside. Pulling the cover back in place after himself, he then slid the rest of the way down the ladder to join Freya on the concrete walkway that lined the side of the sewer. "Urghh," He groaned, wrinkling his nose at the new smells that were assaulting his senses. "I thought things were bad in the slums, but down here is even worse!"

Freya gave a nod of agreement and started down the walkway, picking her way through the junk and debris that had accumulated over years of neglect. "The sooner we get through here, the sooner we can get back to fresh air. Come on." Zack followed without argument. The stench was making his eyes water.

They traveled for some time in relative silence, keeping an ear out for more Moth Slashers or any troopers that might have thought to check the sewers. There were several of the floating robots running around, but none were so difficult that they couldn't handle them.

Zack was putting away his sword again after one such encounter when he happened to comment "This Veld guy must be really important to all of you of you're willing to go to so much trouble for him."

Freya was reloading her shotgun and she looked up at him. "He made the Turks what they are, it's the least we can do."

They continued along the sewer, footfalls echoing in their wake. "So he was like your mentor then?"

"More to Tseng than the rest of us, but yes." Freya scooted around what appeared to be some kind of brown sludge on the walkway, though Zack could swear it might be about to sprout feelers at any moment. He decided it was also in his best interest not to tempt fate by stepping in it and did the same.

"Oh."

"Although he was much more than that. As the director, I don't know how many times he protected us from things that were too dangerous for even the Turks to know."

"You mean… like Hojo?" Zack said after a moment.

A pair of sad, faintly glowing copper colored eyes looked back at him from the gloom. "I'm afraid so…" The eyes disappeared as the woman turned around, continuing her search for the ladder she wanted.

A thought entered Zack's mind at that point and he almost didn't want to ask the question attached to it, but it tumbled out of his mouth before he could think. "Was he the one… who asked you to leave when…"

Freya paused, and Zack really regretted asking. After another moment passed, she spoke. "…You know what happens when you disobey Shinra's orders… …But even Tseng was disgusted by the whole thing… Veld knew what could happen to us if we did something rash, and he didn't want to take that risk… I think you can do the math…"

She had not moved from where she stood, nor had she even looked at him, and since Zack seemed to be at a loss for words, she continued. "No one would hold it against you, you know… If you decided you didn't want to help him… If you want, you can go back to Cloud and Aerith and Kunsel… You don't have to fight our battles… if you don't want to…"

Zack had to admit she did have a point. But if anything, now that he had this knowledge, he was wondering why he couldn't seem to feel more anger towards the guy. Had the emotional response not hit him yet? Or was it just that he'd found out so much about Shinra's inner workings in the last few years that he'd lost the energy to be anything more than sick of how twisted the company could be? "Don't get me wrong, nothing could begin to make up for what happened to us in Nibelheim." He began. "But I told Tseng I would help you guys. To turn around and go hide in a hole over this wouldn't be very honorable, now would it? Especially when there's a world to save." He heard Angeal's words echoing in the back of his mind. Pride, Honor, and Dreams, the ideals of a SOLDIER, or at least they had been in his mentor's eyes. It was hard to see that Shinra or SOLDIER had those anymore, but he'd probably learned the power of intangible ideals better than anyone. Otherwise, he would never have taken Cloud out of the lab with him, just because they were friends and it was the right thing to do.

"Honor…" Freya laughed and it echoed off the tunnel walls. "That's right, I heard from Tseng about how Angeal used to give that spiel to the recruits. We had that too. We took pride in being the best at what we did, our honor was to serve the President to the best of our abilities, and our dream was that through our work in and out of the shadows, we'd create a better future. We never broke it down that way, but that's why we say 'No mission is impossible for the Turks.'" After repeating the phrase, she started walking again, her posture straightening as her original, confident demeanor resurfaced. "I think that's enough introspection for now. If you think your honor is reason enough to keep going, then let's go."

They continued a little further before Freya found the right ladder back to the surface and climbed it to remove the manhole cover. Upon following her up, Zack found himself in another alley in a part of the slums he wasn't familiar with. Freya was covering him as she watched the goings on out on the main thoroughfare, and once he'd pulled the manhole cover shut and joined her she whispered "Security's real tight around here. We'll have to be careful."

Zack took a look around the corner and realized she was right. There were a lot more Moth Slashers patrolling around here, and while he was quite confident in his ability to take more than one if the need arose, there were far too many for initiating combat to be the best solution. Stealth was by far the better recourse.

They crept along, flitting from building to building like ghosts, until eventually, at the end of the wall of a particularly rundown shack, Freya stopped and pressed against the wall to avoid being seen. Zack followed her lead and then gave her a questioning look. That was when he heard two voices nearby.

"Man, this is boring…"

"Well, our shift's not up yet so you'll just have to suck it up. Stay on your guard."

"Seriously, do we really need all these checkpoints? We don't even have orders to inspect the vehicles that go through the gates."

"Fair point. But what else is going to come through here besides the company trucks?..."

At that point, Freya motioned that they inch back a couple of feet and they slid along until they were safely hidden. "Well now we know why there's so much security around here," she whispered. "We'll need to commandeer a truck to get past that checkpoint."

"Let's find one then," Zack said. "The sooner we get this taken care of the better." That, and the sooner Veld was away, the sooner he could get back to Cloud and the others, but he was sure Freya already knew that to be the case. At that moment, her PHS buzzed again. She grimaced and shrank further into the shadows as she answered the device. As she whispered into it, Zack was on alert. It was a good thing too, because right at that moment, there were louder voices coming from near the checkpoint.

"Hey, did you hear something?"

"Like what?"

"If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought I heard something moving behind that building over there…"

"We need to go." He whispered, tapping her on the shoulder urgently.

Freya ended the call and the two fled down the alley. When he glanced behind him Zack spotted a shadow from a trooper, most likely headed in their direction to check out the sound. Before the trooper was around the side of the building, Freya hurried up to a door that stood slightly ajar. Not bothering to see what was inside, she pulled Zack in after her and shut it behind them. As he heard the latch completely shut, he found himself in what looked like a small training room that had been fashioned from a storage area. Around the walls, a sound system had been installed along with a computer, and a training mat had been laid out across the floor. In the center of the room; apparently just distracted in the middle of practicing roundhouse kicks; stood a familiar looking girl in a military academy uniform. As the girl with pigtails whirled around to see who had interrupted her training, Freya voiced her mutual surprise. "Elena?"

"Freya?" Elena replied, clearly just as surprised by the two people who had barged in on her.

"So this is where you you've been training?" She looked around the room with interest.

Elena scowled. "What are you doing here? This is my space, so get out!"

Freya raced forward and cupped a hand over the teenager's mouth. "Shh, quiet!" she hissed.

Zack listened at the door, hoping no one had heard the girl's outburst.

"What's going on?" Elena whispered.

"They're looking for us. We're sorry we interrupted you but please, let us stay here for a bit."

Zack heard footsteps outside and gripped the Buster Sword in case they walked up to the door, but instead, the person walked on by, the sounds fading in the distance.

Elena folded her arms as she considered Freya's request before frowning at them. "….Fine then."

Freya backed away from the girl and sighed. "Thanks. We won't be here long."

"Just as long as you're gone when they are."

"Sorry to bother you," Zack added from the door.

Elena continued to scowl and Freya apparently didn't take kindly to it. "So what is it that's gotten you so angry whenever you see us?"

"Do I need a reason? You guys did go and get yourselves in a lot of trouble. Our Dad's place has been crawling with troopers because of you and my sister…" Elena growled.

Freya was about to retort when her PHS buzzed again. "Sorry, I have to take this." She stepped away and answered it quietly. "Tseng?"

Zack diverted his attention back to the door as Freya spoke to her boss. He didn't hear anymore movement outside, but he strained his ears for even the smallest indicator that someone could still be in the area. He thought he caught the whir of one of the Moth Slashers in the distance just before Freya hung up, but it went away almost as quickly as his ears picked it up.

"It sounds like you know where you're going. If you need to grab a company truck, there's a lot on the west end that they use." The hurried tone in Elena's voice further highlighted her desire to be rid of them.

"Thanks," Freya said.

"Whatever, now get out."

"All right." Freya looked like she was about to leave when an idea dawned on her. "Elena, you can fight too right? Lou told me your specialization at the academy was with a handgun."

Elena stiffened defensively. "I dropped that a while ago."

"Why?" Freya asked.

Elena tapped a small badge on her uniform. "Because I've aced the exams in martial arts five times already…"

"I'm happy for you. Too bad though. Lou said your Dad wanted you to stick with it, but I guess that's you're decision. Thanks for letting us stay here." Freya took a few steps back towards Zack, and he was grateful this hadn't devolved into a discussion of family gossip.

As the lady Turk reached the door, she looked back at Elena. "One thing though. Try adjusting your stance so your weight is a little more to the left." With that, the two fugitives left Elena alone in the training room.