Disclaimer: Not mine.

Author's notes: Elena's backstory! Sort-of… I find her such an interesting character to write.

Once again, thanks for the reviews.

For some reason, her conversation with Strife made her feel at ease for the rest of the night. There is just something mildly comforting about being able to discuss her feelings with someone else.

As Turks, they never talk about how missions went, no matter how bad it gets. In fact, she'd spent all her early years in the Turks learning that they are not allowed to have feelings. The only time she remembered when Rude and Reno allowed themselves to show some vulnerability was after Tseng's death.

With the death of Rufus Shinra, Old Shinra went with him and so did the Old Turks (or so she'd like to think). Elena wanted to believe that they were different now compared to the calculating, killing machines that they were before.

Or at least, she'd want to try to be something different.

With the help of Cloud (he claims it's because he has nothing better to do), the Turks had managed to track down surviving HAWK members. Shinra still kept files on the Turks' old enemies in its basement. From the files, they traced the current addresses and worked from that angle.

They realised that the rebel group had disbanded when their leader died; most of the group members were slum kids looking for an adventure. After the years passed, the surviving members had moved on with their lives, HAWK long forgotten. When the Turks came knocking on their doors with questions, most of the ex-members were extremely surprised. Some even had to be reminded that they were once a member.

The last person they questioned had suffered from massive brain damage due to all the drugs he'd taken in his youth. He could barely form a coherent sentence so they crossed him out of the list pretty quickly.

"So, eleven down, one more to go…," Elena said, riffling through her folders.

Reno kicked a stray pebble on the street to quell his rising boredom; he hated detective work. "Who have we got next?"

"Alus Reinhardt," Elena read out from the piece of paper in her hands, "Twenty five. He lives in Sector Eight, which is just around the corner from here. He was one of the more senior members of the group, having joined them when he was sixteen."

"Sixteen, huh?" Cloud mused, "We all do stupid things when we were sixteen. I bet you none of us thought that it would come back and bite us in the ass ten years later."

"Shut up, Strife," muttered Reno grumpily; he still did not trust the spiky haired man.

Elena turned the corner that led them to a small, tidy hut. She stopped at the doorstep and knocked on the door curtly.

Alus Reinhardt was a pale man with ginger hair. The moment he caught side of Elena, his mouth contorted in anger and he tackled her onto the ground as he yelled, "You bitch!"

Everyone else was caught off-guard by the thin man knock who knocked a Turk off her feet.

She hit the ground with an "Oof!" but recovered just in time to dodge Alus' knifepoint. When he missed, Alus let out a scream that resembled a warcry.

The knife had embedded itself on the bed of soft soil inches away from her earlobe. Alus moved to pull out the knife but he was too slow. Elena grabbed his wrist and twisted it sideways. Losing his balance, Alus started to tilt to the right side.

Elena used the momentum to roll him onto his back and while still straddling him, she pulled his knife from the ground and pressed it against his neck. He screamed in frustration and started to thrash around; trying to throw Elena off him but the knife on his carotid artery quickly stopped him from doing so.

Seeing that it was safe to proceed, Rude and Reno pulled the boy up by his collars and held his arms around his back.

Elena stood up and brushed the dirt out of her clothes; mind still trying to process the events.

"Okay, you piece of shit, you want to tell us what this is all about?" Reno asked angrily, slamming Alus' face against the walls of his hut.

Alus struggled in Reno's grip to try to break free but the red head's grip was firm. "Let me go!"

"Not until you tell us why you attacked us."

"I want to kill that bitch!" Alus' voice was slightly muffled from his position gainst the wall.

"Why?"

"Because…," Alus answered softly, "…she murdered my fiancée."

It was the first time Cloud had witnessed an interrogation conducted by the Turks, suddenly feeling lucky to not have gone through the same thing when he was captured by Shinra.

The Turks looked particularly intimidating and Cloud now understands why they dress in dark blue suits and wears their sunglasses indoors.

Alus was seated in the centre of his own living room, hands and feet bounded securely. Despite the circumstances, he looked calm.

"So, Alus," said Reno in a menacing voice that Cloud had not heard before, "Tell us about your fiancée."

A look of nostalgia passed onto his face as Alus remembered the girl he loved. "I met Cassandra at her father's recruitment drive. She was the most beautiful girl…"

"Recruitment drive?" Elena interrupted. She was seated on the edge of the dining table, arms crossed casually around her chest.

At the sound of Elena's voice, Alus attempted to get up but Reno shoved him roughly and prodded him with the mag rod. Alus screamed in pain as he felt the electricity course through his body.

"Answer her question. What recruitment drive?"

Alus glared Elena, eyes filled with contempt. "They were recruiting members to join HAWK. Cassandra's father was the leader."

"Then what? You decided to join a terrorist organisation to impress a girl? you expect us to believe that bullshit?" Reno mocked with a bark of cruel laughter.

"NO!" Alus thundered, "It wasn't like that. HAWK is not a terrorist organisation like AVALANCHE. We never wanted to hurt anyone."

"What about the plans to destroy the Mako reactor? You don't think that it will hurt anyone if you blew it up?"

Cloud flinched slightly at that question; it brought back unpleasant memories.

Alus was seemingly confused when he answered Reno's question. "Plans to do what? We never made any plans to do that!"

"We received news from our sources that your leader had plans to do that."

"No, there were no plans like that," he denied angrily, "It must be one of those lousy slum kids bragging about it. They do things like that all the time to try to impress the girls."

"I see," Elena said under her breath.

Alus might not be the brightest bulb but even he could put two and two together to form a reasonable conclusion. "Is that it?" he cried out, "Is that why you killed Cassandra? Because the damn president thought that we were threatening his position based on information received from drunks?"

There were tears streaming freely down his face now and Cloud felt almost sorry for the boy.

"Never mind how we get our information. How did you know that she was the one that carried out the president's orders?"

The tears in his eyes couldn't hide his hatred. "I saw her do it."

Behind her sunglasses, Elena's eyes widened.

"I saw her kill them all," Alus said through gritted teeth, "I was waiting for Cassandra outside and saw her do it."

"You know she did it and yet you didn't try to stop her?"

The question made Alus sob harder. He mumbled incomprehensibly through the sobs and Reno jabbed him again with the mag rod. "Speak up!"

Voice barely above a whisper, he finally answered, "I was scared."

Reno scoffed tauntingly, "This woman here killed the love your life and you hid in the dark because you were scared?"

Alus looked down on the floor guiltily.

"Pathetic," spat Reno.

Something in Alus must have snapped then. "You don't think I've tried to get back at you for what you did?!"

Cloud noticed that Elena, Rude and Reno's bodies tense up.

They got him.

"So you employed people to try to kill us? What about blowing up the Shinra building? You think that was funny?"

"What bomb? What people?" Alus said, voice filled with confusion. "I didn't hire anyone to do anything. I swore to kill you with my own hands. Hiring someone to finish the job would be a coward's way out."

Reno was losing his temper fast. "Isn't that what you are?"

Following Reno's accusation, Alus went quiet.

Cloud knew that to the Turks, that meant a confession. He had to intervene before things get out of hand; Reno was reaching his breaking point. "Calm down, Red. I don't think he did it."

"Shut the hell up, Strife!" Reno thundered.

"I tried, you know?" Alus said suddenly, as though gaining newfound courage, "For years I trailed you and waited outside Shinra with the gun in my hand. But every time I tried pulling the trigger, I couldn't do it. I kept thinking that if I killed you, I wound end up to be just like you. A murderer."

Elena flinched at the word; just slight enough to go unnoticed by Alus.

After that, Alus had fallen into some of trance, muttering only to himself and saying nothing to anyone else. Reno tried riling him up again to no avail.

"Forget it," Reno said in frustration, throwing his hands in the air, "He's a lost cause. Let's go."

The group had been walking for almost two blocks when Cloud finally noticed that Elena had not followed them. He turned around to go back but was stopped by Reno's iron grip on his arms.

"She has to finish it."

Alus Reinhardt did not need to look up to see who it was when he heard the door creak open. "I knew you'd be back."

Click.

Similarly, he could tell that it was the sound of the safety being turned off without opening his eyes.

He had resigned to his fate at the Turks' hands.

"I didn't do it," he repeated one final time.

BANG!

"I know."