Once a Turk...
The whole group sat in the Highwind, prepared for the days long journey to the Mako Reactor near Junon.
Beth glanced quietly at Reno, and then back at Tseng, then Vincent. She didn't say anything. Nanaki looked at Kukarui and turned away shyly when she looked his way. Cid occasionally cursed at the young pilot for almost hitting at mountain or a lake. Cloud was thinking and Tifa was sitting in a corner, cleaning her armlet and rearranging materia. Yuffie was suffering from acute motion sickness and Cait Sith wasn't moving much. Barret was loading ammunition into his gun-arm while glancing at the Turks every few moments. Elena was hiding behind Tseng, who wasn't doing anything.
Finally, Reno was the one to say something. "Beth..."
Beth looked up from her trance-like state and looked at the red-headed Turk. "Yes?"
Reno let out a breath before he spoke next. "Why did you save Tseng?"
Tseng shot a look at Reno for saying something like that, "Reno! Didn't you WANT me to be saved?"
Reno's face paled slightly, "Not that boss, but she was an enemy, and she should have let you DIE!"
"Once a Turk, always a Turk..." Vincent spoke up. "It's in her blood to help Tseng."
Tseng and Reno turned to see Vincent talking to them.
"When was she a Turk?" Reno said.
"Before you were... she and I went through training together," Tseng said. "She was quiet the Turk in those days, before Hojo got his greedy hands on her and turned her into his own plaything."
Now the whole airship was listening. Tseng looked at Beth.
"You want to hear the whole story of my life?" Beth said.
Cloud broke in, "Yes, if you don't mind..."
Beth sighed and took a deep breath. "Shortly after I was born, Vincent took me from Midgar and to Mideel, where he left me on a doorstep. I was raised there with my sister Kukarui..." Beth glanced over at Kukarui, who was laying down, she opened her eyes at the mention of her name.
"When I was almost eighteen, my parents died in an earthquake. Kukarui stayed on the island and I went to Midgar to find my fortune.
I joined the Turks training course, hoping that I would make it to be just like the infamous Turks of the day. Tseng joined at the same time, a young Wutan of only twenty three..."
"But..." Reno interrupted, "Tseng is a little older than you, but you look no more than twenty..."
Tseng shot Reno another glance, "Let her tell the story, okay?"
"We were the only two that had made it through the training, and we were full fledged Turks. Still, even though I had a good job and a wonderful 'family' of Turks, I felt as if I needed to know my family. I knew that I had been adopted by my Mideel family not long after my birth and that my birth mother probably died. I spent my extra time searching the records in Shin-Ra for any records of a birth.
I found nothing about me, but I found some records of a woman pregnant with twins, and one was classified as 'dead'. I read more into it, but didn't notice that Dr. Hojo was behind me."
Flashback
'Find the history of my son and wife interesting do you?' he asked...
'Dr. Hojo, sir... I... I...'
'Answer me!'
'Sir... I was adopted from Midgar and I was searching records for any connections to my birth parents.'
Hojo grabbed the records from which she was reading, 'These are confidential... nobody reads these.' He had a dangerous look in his eyes.
'I won't tell a soul.'
'No.' He said as he grabbed her arm and held onto her, he pushed a syringe full of something into the muscle, 'You won't.'
End of Flashback
"I was knocked clean out, but not before learning that I was his daughter, Sephiroth was my brother and somehow an ex-Turk named Vincent Valentine was in on this.
When I woke up, I was in extreme pain, Hojo had taken me into his laboratory and had taken the liberty of removing my arm and replacing it with THIS!" She held out her gauntlet, in utter terror, "He told me that I would never truly die, yet die a thousand deaths. He soon locked me into a coffin where I slept for ten years, until Cloud and his group came to rescue me. So, here I am, unaged from the time we were Turks together, Tseng... and I will never age."
The airship was quiet for a few moments until Vincent looked at her and tried to say something, just as alarms started going off.
Cid yelled, "SHIT! We might crash-land!" He looked around at his allies and yelled, "Git yer arses in GEAR, we r' gonna crash! Better 'old tight!!!!!!"
Barret dived under the control panel, Tifa ran to Cloud, Elena ran towards Tseng and Tseng held his ground.
They all were scattered by the time the Highwind mad a rough landing in the grass next to Junon. Nobody was too awfully hurt, but a little shaken.
The group climbed out of the airship, and Cid yelled at his crew, 'If this aint fixed by 'da time 'e git back, som' 'eds are gonna fucking ROLL!" the crew got to work immediately.
The group traveled through lower Junon and to the elevator, where a single soldier stopped them, "Ten Gil" He said, indicating it cost ten gil to ride the elevator.
"Shit it is!" Barret and Tseng both lunged for the man, who screamed like a girl. Tseng got him first and showed him that he was a Turk.
"W...wait, y...you are in l...l...luck today Mr. Wulong, it's free... for Turks today... and anyone traveling with Turks today.... promise!" Tseng threw the soldier down in the mud and walked onto the elevator. Beth felt sorry for him and slipped the guy a hundred gil note that she had 'borrowed' from Yuffie.
It took the elevator minutes to reach the top.
In that time, Yuffie thought it would be funny to aggravate Beth. She leaned over and fell onto the older woman.
Beth tried not to look flustered, but she was... "Watch it, Squirt." She said.
Yuffie whipped her head around and looked at her, "Shut up you cold-hearted old corpse!"
Beth lunged at the youngster, but Vincent and Tseng, who were closest to Beth, held her back from attacking the teenager. Beth growled and snarled in an unhuman tone. "You little whore! You little rat!" She starting to say something in Wutanese, but Tseng looked at her.
"Don't start with that, please..." He said, and he and Vincent put her down gently. Beth watched as Yuffie got off the elevator, keeping in mind that that girl was fond of aggravating her older ally.
The group headed down the main street of Junon. They continued until Cloud stopped them. "Hey... what seems to be missing from this picture you guys?" He said, looking around.
"Hey! The Cannon is GONE!" Tseng said, "Where did it GO???"
Elena laughed, "Tseng, it couldn't have grown legs and WALKED away, now could it?"
Cloud continued on towards the elevator leading to the underwater reactor. Inside, there were two SOLDIERS and a poor, cowering little elevator operator. One of the SOLDIERS told Cloud that whoever made it out of the elevator got to take her out. They started the fight by smacking Cloud across the face with a gun.
All too soon the two men lay dead and the girl was very thankful. She gave Cloud a hug, much to the dismay of Tifa, but thanked them all. The elevator stopped and the whole group got off. Cloud turned to the whole group and looked at them. "I am going to take Cid and Tifa, the rest of you guys go back up to Junon, if I need you I will call for you." Cid, Tifa and Cloud ran off. Beth and Vincent looked at each other.
"Why didn't he say that up there in JUNON???" Reno fumed.
"Hush Reno, they know us here, we can go get off our ass drunk." Tseng said, as the whole group got back onto the elevator.
Beth sat in the lobby of the hotel in Junon and sighed. She hadn't much to think about and nothing to shop for. Tseng, Rude and Reno had gone to the bar, Barret had gone to the Armory and Elena, Yuffie and Tifa had gone shopping. There was no telling where Kukarui and Nanaki was. Vincent wasn't anywhere to be see either. Cait Sith hadn't been around for a few hours either, leaving the sister of Sephiroth alone with her thoughts.
She must had fallen asleep because Vincent was waking her up. "Hey... come on... it's almost eight..." He said.
"Hmm... yeah..." She shook her head and sighed. She stood up and looked around. Everyone else must have been in their rooms.
"We are leaving in the Airship for Rocket Town tomorrow, Cloud called and said that he would meet us there for the Huge materia in the Rocket." Vincent followed her upstairs.
Beth woke up in the middle of the night with the PHS ringing. "Hello?" She said half asleep.
"Beth? Can you and Vincent come to this location? I have something that you two might like..."
"Cloud? It's two in the morning..."
"Yeah, Cid and Tifa are on their way back, so hurry up." He hung up.
It was almost three in the morning before Beth and Vincent found where their 'new' submarine was parked, they joined Cloud and he pointed to something.
"See that?"
Beth leaned down, "What is that?"
Cloud smiled, "It's an enterence to a cave... someone is inside."
"Shall we?" Vincent said, walking into the cave.
Beth followed shortly after him and stopped dead in her tracks, Vincent stopped as well. They both looked at the woman that was there.
Vincent walked closer, his voice a whisper, "Lucrecia..." he said.
She looked at him and then at Beth, "don't come any closer."
"M....mother???" Beth said, looking at Lucrecia.
Lucrecia looked at Beth and a soft smile appeared on her face, "So you are the daughter that Vincent rescued... the epitome of beauty."
Beth kneeled down as Lucrecia told of how Vincent had risked his life to save hers. Then she disappeared, leaving three things where she stood. 'Death Penalty,' 'Chaos,' and 'Panthera.'
Vincent absorbed his last limit break, and stored his weapon. Beth only had one weapon and readily absorbed her only limit break, a huge winged black panther- humanoid that was given to her by her father, Lucrecia had merely woken both Panthera and Chaos up.
"I am becoming less human..." Vincent spoke as he felt Chaos rise again within him.
"I have never been human..." Beth said as her eyes flashed bright blood red, Panthera burning inside of her.