A/N: Chapter by Le Pecore Nere. Please ignore any mistakes D

Enjoy

Chapter 17

She had stumbled home after work that day. She didn't remember coming home though, but since she obviously had made it home through the slums in (relatively) one piece, she figures that nothing important happened.

She sank down into the too-hard sofa and felt a sadness come over her. She wasn't too sad about her sister, somehow she had always known that this would have happened, but she didn't think it would happen like that.

Too many thoughts whirled inside her head and she tried to make sense of them all. Reno had killed her sister. Reno had written the letter. It didn't make sense; she knew that this job was dangerous. But she didn't think things would turn out like this. She didn't think she could ever be strong enough to have to deal with being a Turk. Her sister, who was cold, and very often a-times unloving and not understanding, was strong. She had had what it took to be a Turk. She couldn't do this. Maybe she could quit before it was too late. Before she turned out like her sister, cold and unloving, and all too often not-understanding. Or before she turned out dead.

"Oh would you grow up already?" Gun had said to her, after seeing that Elena was crying over her dead dog. Elena wasn't expecting this, and she didn't know what she was expecting her sister to tell her that. So shocked she was, that she forgot to be sad and just stood there, staring at her sister. Sure, Elena wasn't a child anymore, but she was far from being an adult too. Her sister, who seemed to always be way too old for her age, had been grown up at this time in her life, so she figured, why couldn't Elena? "You won't ever get over it if you stand there and cry." Gun continued and walked upstairs.

Elena still just stood there, stunned.

No, she wasn't the same person she was so long ago. Gun, who had always sneered at her, reminding her how weak she was. She wasn't that same person, and she was determined to not be that person ever again.

And there was Reno, who always seemed so full of life, despite –or, perhaps, in spite- his job. She wondered if she could be like that. If she could hold this job, which seemed to be riddled with consequences and pitfalls. Could she hold this job, and still be herself, just like Reno? Well, she thought, I won't ever know unless I find out.

She would try. She wouldn't be the person her sister always sneered and rebuked. It was time, she thought for a change; so she would change herself.

She stood in front of the mirror, with some scissors. She squeezed her eyes shut and cut of the long flanks of blonde hair, until it was no longer long, but short. She looked at herself, maybe not the best hair cut she's ever gotten, but it was the most liberating. She felt different. She felt better.

She had everything packed. Feeling strangely excited and nervous, she left her home for the infamous Shin-Ra building. The chopper waited on the vast roof, and it didn't quite surprise her to see that Reno hadn't showed up yet. She must have waited for about fifteen minutes before she heard a -

"Yo, 'Laney wh-" his mouth fell comically open. "What'd ya do to your hair?" He asked.

"I cut it." She said, subconsciously bringing her hand up to her hair, feeling its strange-yet-comforting shortness.

"Well it looks like your hair met a paper shredder." He said and smirked.

"Thanks." She said pointedly and blinked.

"Nah, I'm just kiddin', but seriously 'Laney, you're the last person I expected to get a 'do." He said and playfully punched her arm.

"Well, now that we're done complimenting Elena's haircut, I think it's time you both headed out now." The stern voice of Tseng spoke up behind them.

"Must be something important if the boss is out to see us off." Reno said. Tseng cleared his throat.

"Well, nothing particularly important, I had forgotten to hand you a report I received yesterday." He replied, handing another manila folder to Elena.

"Wow, mark your calendars kiddos, Tseng forgot something." Reno said with a smirk. Tseng sent him an unheeded glare.

"Yes well, anyway good luck on your mission." He said, and turned heal back down to his office.

"Well, shall we head out ourselves?" Reno said and hopped into the helicopter. She followed suit. It wouldn't have surprised her to find out that this was the same chopper that they had used earlier.

Reno went about flipping controls on the vast control board, and Elena just buckled herself in, she wondered briefly if she would ever pilot something like this, and if it was hard. But she pushed those thoughts out and began to sift through the papers as the helicopter stuttered to life and took off.

The mission seemed pretty straightforward in the chopper. Just locate the scientist, and bring him back. Simple, that is, until Elena and Reno had touched down in Bone Village. They had gotten a room in the hotel, and Elena began to wonder just where they were going to start.

"Well, first I think it'd be safe to say the old man ain't here in the village." Reno had told her after she brought it up. "He'd probably hightail into the Forgotten City, so tomorrow we'll start there." He finished.

"But why not today?" She asked.

"You never start a mission right away; you've got to rest up first. You never know when your next night of sleep will be." He said "Besides, who wants turn down spending the day in this wonderful village?" He asked, and she wasn't sure if he was just being cynical, or if he was serious.

Personally she had never seen anywhere outside Midgar, so everything was a new experience to her.