A/N: Thank god for Tom Clancy's games…especially Rainbow Six Vegas…for the inspiration!

The room was dark, save for a single light source that fell upon a table where Sephiroth sat in front of the subject. The dossier was in front of him in a manila folder—this kid was an orphan due to the earlier antics of his foster father. Godo had forbidden slavery, but at the time, there were still black market dealings in slave labor. Were it not for the illegal dealings of Don Corneo and his cronies, "Ying Gan" here would still have had his birth parents and he would have been next in line to be the chief of his tribe. He knew how it was like with the slavers—in fact, he was ordered by the emperor himself to execute Corneo in his own home and in front of his harem of slaves he had kidnapped from various tribes.

"Vincent Valentine," he said, reading his subject's westernized name, "foster son of Lucrecia Crescent-Valentine, and under the custody of Akudo Hojo. Real name is 'Ying Gan' in the tongue of the Taka Tribe. It says here that your father was the chief, and your mother was the daughter of his right-hand man…so technically you're royalty of sorts. Tell me, how does a kid go from the son of royalty to lowly pickpocket. I'm very sure that my sister has taught you better than that."

Vincent looked back up at Sephiroth, with some sort of rage in his eyes at the man. "If you cared that much about her uncle, then why weren't you at her funeral?" The way he said the word 'uncle' was so laced with poison that it actually struck a nerve in Sephiroth. "As a matter of fact, where were you when I was put under the custody of that bastard? Do you realize how much hell I've gone through? Yeah, I stole, but only to survive—Hojo and Weiss would never let me near anything good and food was only the beginning, so I had to take what I needed to last a little longer. In fact, if you hadn't stopped me in the marketplace, I would have had a chance to finally escape."

"You think application into the military academy is going to help your situation any? No. I've already informed the academy of your…activities. Needless to say that they weren't happy with someone with that sort of background—theivery? Attacking a soldier? You should be going to juvenile hall for what you did…however, I'm willing to let you out easy."

"I may not be the prince of a tribe anymore, but I still take my birth father's lessons to heart. I know there's a catch when I see one. What do you want in exchange?"

"Sharp fellow…in any case, I have some information for you: The military academy has told me explicitly that they won't take you—however, that doesn't mean that you won't be serving in the army. You'll be serving in a unit under me…it's going to be top secret work, and so you won't be allowed to speak of it."

Vincent looked on at his uncle in interest…perhaps this was indeed an opportunity in disguise. "Do I have to go back to that asshole?"

"Only if you want to."

"Then count me in—as long as I am free from Hojo, then I'll do anything you say."

Sephiroth smirked inwardly—he knew that this would bring him in…and judging from what he's seen, his nephew will make him proud…

Twelve years later…

The noise of the helicopter's rotors filled the air as the operatives geared up for combat. Five years ago, things had started to get better in Wutai—Godo had remained emperor for the past twelve years, and was doing a good job at it. He named his daughter Yuffie as his next successor under the condition that she be wed first. Two years had been spent to find her a proper suitor, but some three years ago, a new crime syndicate known as Deepground had reared its ugly head on the planet, and decided to strike at the world. The leader was a man by the name of Genesis Rhapsados…and his declaration of war hit the land of Wutai first, plunging it into a nightmare of bloodshed and corruption. In addition to drug and human trafficking, Deepground also funded terrorist cells…it was the job of the covert operations unit known as the "Turks" to hunt down those criminals and bring them to justice—any and all terrorists however, were to be shot on sight.

"All right everyone, listen up!" said the intelligence officer over the headset, "tonight's mission is going to be an easy one—we're here for this man…Heidegger Grendel…" As he had spoken, he pulled a photograph of a fat man with a spiky beard and scars all over his face out of his pocket. "Intel reports that that traitorous piece of shit is in the building we're heading for now, and he has info on where Genesis is. Our orders are to bring him in alive—any other tango you see, you are weapons free, leave no other witnesses. Bear, you and Wolf are going to provide support for Eagle. As soon as he's taken care of the guards on the rooftops, the three of you are to proceed into the building where you are to join in the assault. Rat, you, Rabbit, and Sparrow are going to lead the assault and kill the power the second the last sniper is dropped…first one to round up the bad guy gets a raise, and least number of kills has to treat the whole unit at the next get-together. Set your watches to go off at 2100 hours."

Once everyone had set up their watches, they made sure to check their guns for ammo after they all slipped on their sleek white ballistic masks with a design matching the animal of their code names in red and black paint similar to a kabuki actor's makeup; Eagle especially had to do so, considering that he was the designated marksman of the team, and the only one who can truly navigate through the jungles of Wutai as the other members were mostly foreigners some of whom with grudges against Deepground that he had personally hand-picked over the years after many of his original colleagues had died in missions before and during the campaign. He made sure that he had enough clips for his semiautomatic and silenced sniper rifle with a dual-mode scope for 6x magnification. He then checked his holster to inspect his 9mm semiautomatic handgun and the submachine gun chambered for 4.6x30mm rounds slung around his shoulder. The last piece of equipment that he checked was his wakizashi—this was a precious gift, and he would be sure to treasure it and remember the man who had given it to him as it had saved him in many blade fights.

His close-combat support would be the grenadier known as Bear—real name Rudy Vargas (he prefers "Rude"). His skills in unarmed combat put him on par with Eagle, Rabbit, and Rat, and his extensive knowledge in the use of all explosive ordinances and demolitions equipment proved invaluable in any assault. In the unit, he was known to be very cold and controlled; proof that professionalism was not dead—but Eagle had spotted him playing with children in an orphanage once…he has a vendetta against Deepground due to the fact that they introduced a new drug on the market that had been killing people in his neighborhood in Midgar. When Eagle extended the invitation into the unit to him, he saw this as a chance to get revenge for his people. Bear checked his grenade launcher, and made sure that he had enough frag grenades loaded into each chamber, and saw that he had two remote detonators and eight sets of shells for his sawn-off 12-gauge pump-action shotgun. He also checked to make sure that he had enough hand-thrown frag and incendiary grenades to aid in room-cleaning.

Not much is known among the other members of the team about Eagle's other teammate, Wolf; he had been with the commander since the unit had been formed and so it is only Eagle, and Sephiroth and his brothers that knows a bit more about him than any other member of the unit. His real name was Tseng Fei Long—a full-blooded Wutainese man from a long line of ninja. While not as well-balanced as his superior, Wolf had the edge in terms of sneakiness, and so it fell to him to perform recon work normally. However, when the two of them are paired together, Wolf rarely ever failed to aid in any sniping mission as a spotter for Eagle. His weapons of choice were a katana, a .45 ACP semiautomatic pistol, and a 9mm submachine gun.

The intelligence officer glanced at his watch, and then turned his gaze back to his team. "Mission begins in 30 seconds!" It was then that he pressed a button on the receiver of the radio. "Cid, slow the ship down a bit—we're dropping off Eagle, Bear, and Wolf first!" "Wilco Shin-Ra," said the captain over the radio, "dropping speed."

Rat's real name was Reynolds "Reno" Grayson. Aside from Sparrow, he is the newest member of the team—even before he was scouted out, he was the Kalm Police Department's equivalent of the FNG…no, scratch that, for FNG would be an insult…he was a detective before he racked up several sexual harassment charges, three counts of assault, four counts of taking bribes, one charge of substance abuse, and five counts of police brutality. When Eagle found him, he was pathetic: he was on death row, and he was on his knees begging for his long-dead parents to let him live with a promise that he'll change his ways. The second that Eagle offered to bail him out, Rat was ecstatic…he had found a chance to attain penance for his sins of the past…not to mention that he hated Deepground for introducing him to the same drug that killed off Bear's people. Over the past two years, Rat had been getting clean. He inspected his.50 AE semiautomatic handgun, his collapsible EMR, and his 12-gauge semiautomatic shotgun.

Sparrow's role was as combat medic. She was the one to call whenever a quick getaway was needed, hence why she was chosen for this job—but mostly for her skills as a medic. She was Elena Francois Baptiste fresh from medical school in Corel. Out of all her peers, she had the highest grades, and was an aspiring doctor…however, the day Deepground came, she saw many deaths at the hands of that crime syndicate—all the drugs they had introduced had infuriated her as a doctor…and so she joined for the sake of her future patients. She had a 9mm machine pistol, an assault rifle, and a rucksack filled with medical equipment in addition to a survival knife.

Tiffany "Tifa" Lockheart had the codename of Rabbit—she was the team's driver-slash-pilot and heavy weapons specialist. Like Bear, she is a skilled martial artist with an inhumanly high amount of sheer strength for a woman of her build that puts her on par with Eagle and Rat due to the fact that she and Bear studied martial arts under the same teacher. She once owned a bar in Nibelheim that Deepground sought to buy out and use as a hideout—instead they wound up having to burn the place down, and threatening the adopted child of her friend Lieutenant Colonel Barrett Wallace. She would never forgive them although the offenders were all killed that day. She tightened her fighting gloves, and loaded her light machine gun with a single drum of ammunition (her strength was such that she could use that gun as if it were a normal rifle), checked her assault rifle, and then finally her .500 S&W revolver.

"Mission begins in 5…4…3…2…1…we are a go!"

Upon the words being uttered from Shin-Ra's mouth, Wolf, Bear, and Eagle ran and jumped out of the doorway to begin their freefall to the jungle below. The three of them streamlined their bodies so as to fall down faster and to stabilize their target destination before they all unhooked a special grenade from their rucksacks, attached it to their guns in the fashion of a sound suppressor, and fired it into the ground, creating a small explosion of gel that broke their fall and evaporated a few seconds upon landing—this was a new toy invented by the ladies and gentlemen of the research and development department. Eagle turned to Wolf, pointed to his own eyes with his index and middle fingers, and then pointed upwards causing for his colleague to jump up above the foliage and then motioned for Bear to follow him after readying his silenced 9mm pistol. The two of them ran forward and into the jungle—the first thing that Eagle did was to fire two silenced shots into the darkness, with his efforts being rewarded with a soft thud as two guards took a 9mm bullet each to the forehead. After pausing to confirm the kill, something fell from the tree near the two men…it was a corpse hanging by the neck—no doubt Wolf's doing.

After running through the jungle for almost five minutes, the two of them made it to their destination—a cliff overlooking an apparently abandoned military base. "There's four tangos on the roof," said Wolf, "all of them are armed with semiautomatic sniper rifles. Take careful aim—if any one of them is noticed, it could throw a wrench in the operation."

Eagle nodded, took out pulled out the receiver to his two-way radio, and whispered, "Rufus, we've made it to rally point alpha. How's bravo team?"

"They're at rally point beta…waiting for you to fire the shots."

"Will do. Over and out." With that, Eagle shut off his radio, and took aim—there was one sniper for each corner of the compass; an easy kill indeed. He uncovered the lens cap to his scope, and took aim…

Five minutes later…

Heidegger was not surprised that this happened. In fact, he was flattered that it did…Godo sending in the Turks was actually a compliment to him. Nobody need know his reason for treachery—it was not exactly a good reason at all. He witnessed as the power went off—it was a standard tactic to kill off the snipers first and then aim for the power generator. After all, it was he who wrote the book—and if his guess on the current roster was correct, then there's no escape…Sephiroth's right hand had always served on many important missions as a Turk, and rarely anything ever escaped his aim…in fact, the boy was a prodigy given the fact that his whole tribe relied upon the hunt, making him the ultimate in special operations soldiers. The sound of gunfire and explosions ringing through the halls of the abandoned military base he occupied told him that they were close—they will never take him without a fight.

There was not much else he could do. He simply pulled out his trusty pistol, and checked its capacity—a full load, more than enough to do what it was that he wanted. After finding his weapon, Heidegger sat on top of his desk facing the double-doors…escape was useless either way. The door was kicked down, and he pointed his gun to the temporal bone of his skull only to have the gun shot out of his hand, get shot by a dart, and then everything went black…

A/N: This is practically a 'meet the team' chapter. "Team Fortress 2" trailers and "Rainbow Six: Vegas" and "Rainbow Six Vegas 2" can do that to you. And I'll bet nobody can guess Eagle's true identity.

Songs Used

"Nine-tailed Demon Fox" by Toshiro Masuda: Sephiroth brings Vincent to the dark room.

"The Menagerie: On the Prowl" by Steve Vai and Marty O'Donnel: used as filler music up to the encounter of Heidegger.

Vocabulary:

Wakizashi—a samurai short sword, normally wielded in one hand and in conjunction with a full-sized katana.