I'm impatient; so sue me. I'm posting this now anyway despite not getting all the reviews; Thanks to Vampireangel, Diamond Fox, Kitsune Onna1 (again!) and Neela who reviewed the last chapter.

Third Iteration

Vincent Valentine was a Turk. Even though she had not been on the ShinRa payroll for over two decades all the skills and habits she had acquired in her eleven-year career had not just gone away during her seventeen-year imprisonment. She was a spy, an assassin, a bodyguard, an enforcer, a thief, a hacker, a kidnapper, a blackmailer and above all an 'accident specialist'. However, it seemed that the Goddess in her infinite wisdom felt that Vincent's repertoire was insufficient and had proceeded to thrust new roles upon her. Mother first of all, followed swiftly by test subject and avatar. Then had come researcher, tutor, monster hunter and role model -two of them courtesy of Cloud- while she was still in Nibelheim. Next had come the three-year-long trip across the planet and a whole slew of new roles; she had gone from tutor and role model to surrogate parent, for one thing. Cloud was fortunately a very well-adjusted boy and had been a very helpful test-dummy for Vincent's developing parenting skills.

The former Turk had become among other things a chocobo trainer and breeder, a mechanic, a messenger, a treasure hunter, a supplier, an artist, a con-artist -that had been an interesting week- a musician, a smuggler and -on one memorable occasion- a peal diver. Now that they had finally settled in Midgar for at least a year Cloud seemed determined to add 'harbourer of fugitives' and 'bleeding heart' to the list if the little redhead with the spiky haircut wearing his old clothes was anything to go by. From the blond's brief summary of events the girl was probably Shelke Rui, a nine-year-old with the rare Synaptic Net Drive gift. There had been a Turk mission to forcibly recruit her into SOLDIER in the database last time she hacked in.

Vincent sighed. "Wolf, there are sandwiches on the kitchen table; help yourself. Cloud, a proper report please."

The little girl vanished into the kitchen while her blond rescuer went over the past hour in greater detail, going so far as to empty his spoils out across the coffee table as a story aid. Vincent picked out two elixirs, two hi-potions, an ex-potion, the Honey Bee Inn membership card, the ShinRa keycards, some of the loco weed and three of the Materia. The Fire was a manufactured Materia and not worth keeping and the Barrier was similarly pathetic, while the Elemental was of no particular use to either of them and therefore better off being sold. On their travels Cloud had got into the habit of keeping all the items not currently in use while Vincent was in charge of the money, so the former Turk never took more than a few days' worth of supplies off him at a time unless he had acquired something off her short list of contraband. Like the keycards, for instance.

"Leave your inventory here and go eat lunch while I set up a kit for your new sibling," Vincent said shortly once Cloud finished talking. The blond smiled so brightly at her concession that she felt her own lips quirk up in response to his unabashed delight.

"Thank-you," her protégé said sincerely before dumping his bag on the sofa and making for the kitchen. Vincent sighed and set about putting together a pack for a cross-dressing nine-year-old girl at risk of being abducted by SOLDIERs and Turks...

PHS, Protect ring, Sprint shoes, two lucky amulets, two hi-potions, a turbo ether, two antidotes, three remedies, six lots of smoke bombs, three hero drinks, two vaccines, seven shrapnel bombs, four spider webs, an hourglass, dream powder, a lot of loco weed, dragon's scales, two ink, three dazers, four changes of Cloud's old clothing, a toothbrush, soap, a towel, emergency cash, a street map of both levels of Midgar with the train map on the back and a headband. Tapping her metal-clawed fingertips on the tabletop Vincent dug through their bags to find a suitable armlet for her new charge.

Eventually she decided upon the Chocobracelet Cloud had won racing in Gold Saucer for the dexterity and luck it conferred: Shelke -now going by Wolf Strife- would need to be both quick and lucky in order to avoid and escape confrontations that, given her current age and size, she would not be able to win. Vincent equipped the bracelet with the newly stolen Exit Materia, a Mystify and a Transform, the latter two mastered and from her own collection; the former Turk doubted Wolf had ever used Materia before and those two were good ones to start learning with. They also created good distraction, which went with the escape theme. Now all that was left was to find out what kind of weapon would suit his new student.

Like Cloud, Wolf proved utterly inept with firearms on her first try; Vincent was very grateful she'd had the forethought to give her a handgun with an empty magazine. Unlike her new brother however she was similarly bemused by swords and knives: she kept trying to skewer or bludgeon rather than slash. Watching her graceless handling of Cloud's twin short swords did however give Vincent an idea of what weapon might suit her better, so after the blond had retrieved his blades she gave them her conclusion:

"Short staves."

Wolf looked puzzled but Cloud's face lit up in comprehension. "Electromags perhaps, like the crazy redheads?"

"Maybe later," Vincent said repressively. The duo Cloud had dubbed 'the crazy redheads' were a pair of Turk brothers who both used collapsible electromagnetic rods. The younger of the two was about seventeen years old, being four years older than Cloud; Vincent believed his name was Reno. The older one was in his early twenties and rode a customised motorcycle.

"Wolf, your gift enables you to receive memories, correct?" Vincent asked her, making eye contact. The redhead's own eyes widened, but she nodded silently. "Good. I want you to copy Cloud's memories of his non-combat-related lessons between the ages of eight and thirteen and general memories of what he has seen while travelling the world in the past three years," the former Turk said calmly. "Cloud, you are to teach your new sibling physical conditioning and magic; when she reaches minimal competence in a few months take her out into the slums to practice against low-level monsters. I am going out to buy weapons for her and will be calling Choco Billy to ask if Aqua and Climber are ready to breed again since Wolf will need her own chocobo." Aqua and Climber were Cloud and Vincent's blue and green chocobos that had been reduced to breeding stock once the two blacks were old enough to ride.

Having secured from Cloud a promise that he would not leave the apartment until she got back Vincent set out to find a weapons shop that didn't ask for a ShinRa permit at the door. In other words, Wall Market.


Vincent is such a softie, isn't she? In this chapter I get to mention two more Turks, getting the count of canon Turks up to, hmm, four not including Vincent herself. No, my bad: five. I count the Before Crisis playable Turks as canon, by the way, though I've had to give them actual names.