Left Behind

A Story in the Turks of Midgar Arc

Chapter 3 – Memories of the Dead and Gone

The basement was dark, smelled musty, and brought a wealth of horrid memories to the surface for Jesse. She remembered how the former Turk leader, Vincent, had hated dank places like this. He had been her mentor, and her secret lover. But he had fallen for the wrong girl, and now he was wasting away in the basement of the Shin-Ra Mansion in Nibelheim. It had been five years since they'd said goodbye, sitting on the roof of the Mansion, under a clear night sky, telling stories and ignoring lies. Vincent had made her want to do something right, something worth doing. So in the alcohol induced haze just after his disappearance, that had translated into becoming a Turk. So, she'd divorced her asshole husband, done many horrible as a Turk, and now she was second in command.

Jesse tried to shut off the memories running through her head, but it wasn't easy. Better that she be dwelling on relatively pleasant memories as opposed to the memories basements usually inspired in her. Tentatively she touched her scarred cheek, once more seeing the man with the gun threatening her and her mother. Jesse shook her head, now was neither the time nor the place to remember how she got her scars.

She reached the basement floor and turned on her flashlight before venturing further. Just as she took a step, she felt a large hand touch her shoulder and she stifled a yelp. She turned around to see Sephiroth standing behind her, his eyes sparkling with amusement, making them glow even brighter in the darkness. His face was lit by the glow of his Mako green eyes, and Jesse sighed before going back and sitting on the stairs, balancing the flashlight between her knees to take her anti-Mako contacts out. She had perfect vision, but hated the glow from her eyes. Mako blue often shone brighter than Mako green, but not in Sephiroth's case. Jesse stood up; carefully placing the little plastic disks in a small case she carried in her bag o' tricks, then returned to where she had been before.

"You shouldn't be down here." That was the first thing she had ever said to Sephiroth, and it startled him. He looked at her closely, it was all too easy in the brilliant blue glow from her eyes. It was the perfect light for her, making her seem even more beautiful. The blue Mako brought out brilliant red highlights in her hair that otherwise were invisible.

"Why ever not?" His voice was deep and strong, running like silk across Jesse's skin. She had put the flashlight away with the contacts, she didn't need it when she glowed.

"The most valuable person always stays near the exit in case of an emergency. That's a definitive rule of being on a Shin-Ra mission; you should know that, General." Jesse had a slightly raspy smoker's voice, low and soft. She never raised her voice, seeing no point to it. Sephiroth barely managed to repress a grin, pleased to see a way of ending the argument.

"By acknowledging my rank, Turk, you have acknowledged that I am the superior officer on this mission." He saw Jesse quickly pull a blank face, concealing the swearing she was apt to do in such a circumstance. "I shall go with you. It would be more enlightening than simply being left behind to guard the door against dust motes."

Jesse saw that for now she had been outmaneuvered, so she chose to bide her time and wait for an opportunity to gain the upper hand again. She had no idea that Sephiroth had noticed how she paled and trembled when going down the stairs. He had checked the file on Jesse before the mission, gaining access to some of the most confidential parts due to his rank.

When she was nine years old, Jesse had been in Midgar City Bank with her mother when Dirk Carlyle and his brother Jest decided to rob it. Jesse and her mother had been the last two hostages, and Shin-Ra had determined that they were expendable. Gregory of the Turks had gone in as a negotiator and replacement hostage. The Carlyle brothers had shot him just inside the glass doors. That was when President Shin-Ra gave the order to blast the bank and everything in it.

While Gregory had been distracting the gunmen, another Turk, Vincent, had slipped in and rigged a bomb to the largest of the vaults. That vault was coincidentally the one Jesse and her mother had been kept in. The bomb went off, cratering the vault and the rest of the bank. Jesse's mother had died in the explosion, covering Jesse when the glass from the doors was sucked into the vacuum caused by the blast.

The file had neglected to mention that the vaults in Midgar City Bank had all been below ground. Sephiroth had found that out when he researched the layout of the building. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the whole incident was that Vincent of the Turks, at the time only 15 –the youngest in history- had persuaded the Turk leader to set up a foster family for the girl Jesse, passing them off as her aunt and uncle. Apparently Vincent had felt so horrible about setting the bomb that he blamed himself for the whole shebang. Sephiroth had accessed the Turk leader from that period's records, learning that no one had told the boy that there were still hostages in the building.

Sephiroth had his own orders for this mission. Get Jesse to the basement, knock her out, and get the hell out of there. It hadn't been said in so many words, but the intention was clear. Jesse of the Turks had worn out her usefulness, and was now to be terminated. With the threat of war with Wutai looming on the horizon, the platinum haired soldier had heard rumors of Tseng being taken out as well, but Shin-Ra had some hold over him that negated that.

It had crossed Sephiroth's mind to follow orders, but where would to fun in that be? He was attracted to Jesse in more ways than one, and if Shin-Ra couldn't appreciate her, he was more than capable of doing so.

Jesse walked unerringly to the largest support pillar, carefully rigging the explosives to it, managing to push the memories of the dead and gone out of her already too crowded mind. She turned around once she was done to see Sephiroth standing by the stairs, his sword drawn and a hard look in his glowing eyes. Jesse paused to swear as her heart froze, and the cold spread to the rest of her body.

She should have known there was more to the Great Sephiroth being on this mission than just to supervise her. Her card was up, the Grim Reaper was waiting, but Jesse was going to have a pound of General-flesh to pay the ferryman with.