Trigger Warning: This fic covers the optional Wutai sidequest and thus includes Don Corneo's dialogue during the scene. It's pretty squicky, given the nature of Don Corneo's crimes. While there is no depiction of rape, graphic or otherwise, there is a vague mention of how he operates. If this is potentially triggering to you, please proceed with caution.

Actual Notes: Rude is my favourite character in the Compilation. So of course my first fanfic is about Elena, because she is tiny, cute, and deadly.

This is kind of an expansion on the Wutai Sidequest because as much as I love the TurkALANCHE teamup, it really really bugged me that someone like Don Corneo could get his hands on a ninja who is also a party member as well as someone who is essentially black ops, rookie or not. So this partly addresses the why of that while still keeping the ladies badass.

Also, bonus points to anyone who can spot the Firefly line.

Elena had often thought she would regret joining the Turks. However, like the fool Reno often accused her of being, she had assumed it would be due to the hard work and inevitable moral compromises that came with the suit, not because her seniors were too damn lazy to even help bring in a known criminal!

Ignoring AVALANCHE's sudden appearance in Wutai was bad enough, though honestly Elena couldn't blame them. Not after the battles they'd fought, the first of which had left Reno so badly injured that President Alexander had made Tseng hire her, the first new Turk in over a year, in the first place.

But to let a known predator like Don Corneo roam free in a town full of vulnerable women, just because it might ruin their vacation—!

(What really pissed her off, the thing that she couldn't ever admit to aloud, was that Shin-Ra didn't even care about the Don's many and varied crimes against the women in Midgar's slums and elsewhere. They only wanted him dead now because he, in fear for his miserable life, had revealed Shin-Ra's plan to deal permanently with AVALANCHE.)

The Shin-Ra troops were so grateful for the presence of even one Turk, Elena really should have been more suspicious. As it was, when she discovered the local commander was taking payoffs from Don Corneo to overlook his activities, Elena nearly shot him. Only the thought of Tseng's inevitable disappointment in her (Reno's scorn, Rude's silent indifference) stopped her.

So rather than simply kill the man (it would have been so easy to justify it to the Company, to President Rufus) Elena disabled him with a quick flurry of blows that had him on the floor in under ten seconds, then spat, "You can consider yourself under arrest." Checking her Materia, she added, "Johnson, Muhanji, you two make sure he doesn't run away when he can move again. The rest of you are with me."

When silence answered her, she spun around to see the men sprawled on the ground, victims of a Sleep spell, with only a young Wutaian girl still on her feet. Elena vaguely recognised her as a member of Cloud's AVALANCHE. "Your form's not bad," the girl said, fire burning in her brown eyes. "But I'm not about to lose to any Shin-Ra flunky!"

She attacked so fast Elena almost thought she had preemptively chugged a Speed Drink. Only her Turk training, on top of her military schooling, let her avoid the strike from the girl's enormous shuriken. As it was, the weapon left a long slice across her jacket. Elena grimaced (so clumsy, Elena, are you sure you can hack it as a Turk?) but threw herself forward, avoiding the Wutaian's startled kick and driving a ferocious punch into her stomach.

Too late, she felt busy hands grab at her Materia. The girl grinned, despite the pained expression on her face. "Too bad," she gasped out.

Elena's eyes narrowed. "I don't need Materia to deal with you," she snapped. "But I don't have the time to, either. So get out of my way."

The girl's eyes narrowed. "What, I'm not enough of a threat for a Turk? Is that what you're saying?"

Elena's temper nearly snapped, but she took a deep breath. Before she could say a word, a new voice snapped out, "Take them both!"

She had just enough time to see the girl's eyes go wide, then a Lightning spell slammed into Elena hard enough to knock her off her feet. The room whirled around her, she hit the floor, and then the Wutaian girl landed on top of her, and she blacked out.

Yelling and swearing in Wutaian greeted her ears when she woke, and for a spell-addled moment she thought it was Tseng. Then she remembered the Wutaian girl, and told herself she wasn't disappointed.

The yelling changed from Wutaian to Standard, and more voices joined in:

"Let go! I said, let go! Hey! Who do you think I— OW!"

That was the Wutaian girl.

The next voice, startlingly, was Cloud's: "You…!"

Then a man started to laugh. It was thick, hearty, and moist; recognising it, Elena felt sick to her stomach. Don Corneo.

"Corneo!?" Cloud demanded, rage underlying his voice.

"I've finally got a new chicky!" Don Corneo crowed. "Two for the price of one, in fact!" His pleased chuckle nearly drowned out Cloud and his companions.

Then Elena realised what he meant. "H-hey!" she cried, struggling against the hands holding her and managing to switch on her mic. "Let go of me! You're gonna regret this!"

"Elena!"

The shouts from Reno and Rude, probably still back in the Turtle's Paradise, nearly blew out Elena's earpiece. Still, it was somewhat gratifying to hear that they could at least be startled out of their alcohol-induced stupor.

Then the man holding her began to run, and Elena concentrated hard on not losing track of where they were going. It was difficult, with Reno demanding a status update, but she suspected he was getting all he needed from the Wutaian girl.

"Get your pervert hands off of me! Let go!"

"Will you shut her up!?" the man holding Elena demanded.

"Yeah, yeah, just give me a— fuck! The little bitch bit me!"

Despite the situation, Elena couldn't help but smirk.

"Elena!" Reno yelled. "Ramuh's sake, girl, say something!"

"Oh, I'm sorry," she hissed, wondering if the mic would even pick it up. "I thought you were on vaca—"

Electricity jolted through Elena again, turning her last word into a scream. She thought she felt an additional shock in her ear, then the world went black again.

This time, wind blowing across her face brought Elena around. Groaning, she opened her eyes, and barely bit back a scream. She was suspended high above the ground; judging by the giant nose in her line of vision, they were somewhere on Da Chao Mountain.

"Hey," a voice to her left hissed. She turned her head to see the Wutaian girl glaring at her across the bridge of the carving's nose. "This is all your fault!"

Elena stared at her, counting backwards from fifty. Don Corneo was giving orders to his men and hadn't yet realised they were awake. She wanted to keep it that way. Sick, greasy old man.

Instead, she hissed, "Reno? Reno, can you hear me?"

Silence greeted her — at least from her earpiece. The Wutaian girl had plenty to say. "Are you talking to yourself?" She groaned. "Just what I need, to get strung up next to a crazy Shin-Ra flunky!"

"Shut up!" Elena snapped as quietly as she could. "It's gonna go from bad to worse if that pervert realises we're awake — and especially if he realises I'm wired."

"Wired? Wait, you're an actual Turk?"

Oh, that stung.

She took a deep breath. "I take it you don't quite understand the severity of the situation," she said.

The girl snorted. "He'll probably just try to ransom us back to our people," she replied.

"No," said Elena flatly. "That's not how he does things."

There was silence for a long moment, then the girl asked, "How do you know?"

"Because he's a serial rapist from the Midgar slums," Elena hissed. "His name's Don Corneo, and he's well known there for going after the women down Below for his nightly 'wives'. He'll grab two or three at a time, then judge them by looks. The 'winner' spends the night with him. The 'loser'… well, his men get his rejects."

"Y-you're kidding!"

"Keep it down!" Elena hissed. "And no, I'm not. Shin-Ra let him have free rein in the slums for years because he was useful to them." She bit back more that she wanted to say — her earpiece was probably fried thanks to the second Lightning spell, but the transmitter might still be working.

"So why did you go after him?" the girl asked hesitantly.

Elena sighed. "Because I could," she admitted. "He screwed up, so Shin-Ra put a price on his head. When I realised that he could finally be stopped…"

"So that's why you took down Jacoby," the girl said, a little bit of wonder in her voice. "He was always so careful not to piss off his bosses."

Elena couldn't help but snort. "Jacoby was a kiss-ass and a worthless excuse for a human being."

"People could say that about the Turks," the girl pointed out.

"Turks don't take payoffs," Elena replied proudly.

…well, okay, they did, but then they made the arrest (or assassination) anyway.

The girl's snort showed what she thought of that.

Silence fell again, and still Corneo had yet to catch on that his captives were awake. How long did he think spell-induced unconsciousness lasted? Still, the longer it took him to realise, the more time Reno and Rude had to find them.

She knew they would find her, even if only to give her a hard time over her capture. She was a Turk, even if they didn't particularly like her.

"Hey," the girl said. "What's your name?"

After a long moment, Elena said, "It's Elena."

More silence, and then, "Mine's Yuffie."

She couldn't feel her arms.

Reno and Rude still weren't there. Elena was doing her best not to wonder if they would come for her at all. They were Turks, she reminded herself. The suit tied them together in ways the Company couldn't. She'd learned that much watching Maggie. (No matter how much Rude resented her, no matter how much Reno hated her.)

Yuffie's friends still weren't there either, but Elena had learned the girl didn't expect them to come for her anyway. She refused to say why, and Elena didn't ask.

Don Corneo, by now, had realised his captives were awake, but so far he was just letting them hang there. In anticipation, Elena thought sourly. Maybe he wanted to hear them beg for release. Yuffie nearly had until Elena hissed at her not to give him the satisfaction. Instead, the girl had been swearing at her in her native language for nearly ten minutes now.

This has to end, she thought furiously.

The furious litany to her left had changed, Elena realised: she could now understand about three words in ten. Briefly she wished she'd had more lessons in spoken Wutaian with Rude — she could read it just fine, she'd always been good at that, but speaking was harder. It seemed to be a list of threats against Don Corneo if he dared lay a hand on Yuffie.

The thought of that greasy fuck putting his hands on a child made Elena sick. (Never mind that she was barely older than Yuffie herself. She was a Turk, damn it!)

But then an idea hatched, something that could get them both out of trouble, and Elena grinned.

"Yuffie!" she hissed.

The litany died for a moment, then a sulky, "What?" drifted back to her.

"I know how we can get out of this."

From the corner of her eye, she saw the girl perk up, then quickly start struggling. Good. They had to maintain the roles Corneo had already come to expect from them — the roles Elena knew he'd seen countless times before.

"So what's the plan?" Yuffie hissed at her, her voice low and pitched to carry only to Elena, even against the damn echoing rocks. Of course a local would know the tricks, but luckily, Elena had wintered in Modeoheim enough to know them herself.

"The only way we're getting down is by him making his decision," she said, swallowing against the bile rising in her throat. "But the thing is — the Don doesn't think any woman could ever best his men. Probably because usually his men are smart enough not to bring him the ones who can. I'm a Turk, and you've been travelling with AVALANCHE."

She thought she could hear a smile in Yuffie's voice. "So we could take them on easy, since we'd be doing the ambushing."

"Yeah," Elena breathed. "And I bet you could put those Materia-thieving skills to work, get that damned Lightning away from them."

"It would be my pleasure," Yuffie practically growled, and Elena bit back a laugh — now that there was a plan, the girl had calmed down tremendously.

"It also means we're going to have to act the way he expects us to," Elena cautioned. "Which, fortunately for the two of us, means defiance. Possibly more childish from you—"

"Hey!"

"—since you're a princess and all," Elena finished.

Yuffie paused. "How did you know about that?" she asked.

Elena smiled. "We do have files on the royal family."

This earned her some more curses, but Elena ignored them to focus on trying to get the bloodflow working in her hands and feet again without actually looking down. Seeing that dizzying drop from the mountainside to the ground below was beginning to damage her calm.

And then she saw Corneo stand away from his men and come over towards them. Yuffie was struggling in earnest now, heedless of the tumble she would take if the ropes actually snapped. "Let… me… go!" she screeched.

Corneo hummed in delight, wagging his body obscenely from side to side, and Elena gritted her teeth. "Delicious… scrumptious!" he proclaimed. I think I've just found a new hobby!"

What, suspending girls over bottomless chasms? Elena shivered, trying not to look down and instead focusing instead on his words. "Which shall it be? Hmm… hmm… Should I go… with her?"

He thrust his hips forward at her, and Elena snarled, "H-hey! I'm one of the Turks! Don't think you can get away with this!" Silently she cursed the hitch in her voice — she'd intended to sound proud, but then she'd caught sight of the drop again and her fear had shown through for a moment. She prayed that her mic had been fried.

Corneo wandered over to Yuffie and made the same obscene thrust at her. "Or… maybe… her?"

"Oh, God!" Yuffie shrieked, sounding like she wanted to vomit. Well, that was fair. So did Elena. "If I knew this was gonna happen, I would've taken rope escape lessons more seriously!"

What good that would have done her suspended halfway up a mountain, Elena really didn't want to know.

"I've made my choice!" Corneo suddenly declared, his back to them, and Elena felt panic press in on her. Desperately she prayed for rescue, for him to pick Yuffie because he would be so, so easy to take down and Elena could more than handle any of his goons where she wasn't sure Yuffie could, for him not to pick Yuffie because the thought of that sleaze putting his hands on a child sickened her more than she could say, that Rude and Reno would remember the suit—

"My companion for the night will be…" He whirled suddenly, pointing one finger straight at—

Yuffie.

"The cheerful one!" he said.

Yuffie flipped out. "Gross-ness!" she shrieked, so harsh and shrill Elena was sure she'd lose her voice. "Don't mess with me, old man! You don't even have any Materia!"

Don Corneo started wagging again, cackling his glee. "Ooooooh, and she's saucy, too! Wheeee!"

A red haze dropped across Elena's vision, and she snarled and lunged forward against the ropes—

"All right, that's it!"

Cloud's voice. So it was AVALANCHE who had found them after all.

Startled mid horse-laugh, Corneo lept back, nearly to the edge of the carved fingers, and Elena prayed now for a good strong wind. "What… what's goin' on!? Who's there?"

Cloud came running into view, accompanied by the woman Tifa, and—

Elena paled.

Cait Sith.

"Oh, man!" Yuffie yelped. "Cloud…"

Elena gave her a strange look and muttered, "Shouldn't you be glad your friends came for you?"

Yuffie looked up, down, to the side, anywhere but at Cloud or Elena. "I was… kind of hoping it'd be your friends, actually."

Elena looked straight forward, feeling her heart sink. "They're not coming," she whispered. All loyalty to the suit must have abandoned Shin-Ra with Maggie and the other missing Turks. All Reno and Rude cared about was themselves. They were probably glad to be rid of her.

And there was Cait Sith to witness the betrayal. Reeve must love it, after what Tseng had forced him to do.

"Weeeeeeeeeeeell," Don Corneo drawled nervously. "Long time no see."

"Don't tell me you forgot," Cloud growled, and Elena was struck by the hatred rolling off him and the woman at his side.

"The fall into that trap really hurt!" the woman added, and there was a twist to her words that reminded Elena of why Don Corneo was in trouble with the Company to begin with..

"Listen, you stupid, slimy, sleazy old scab bag!" Cait Sith squeaked, and Elena marvelled at the sheer rage Reeve was able to project through its speakers. "If you want to get women, there's such a thing as the right way!" And now she remembered that of course Reeve would have weaseled his way into the group for this: he'd been trying for years to get Corneo behind bars.

"Be quiet!" raged Don Corneo, flailing his arms like a child in a tantrum. "None of you know how much I've suffered since then…" He turned his back to Cloud's party, and Elena wanted nothing more than for one of them to push him off the edge of the hand. "It's a long story, but…"

"We don't want to hear it!" Tifa snapped. "Just let them both go!"

Elena stared. She couldn't have heard that right.

"Hmmm," mused Don Corneo, suddenly sounding all too composed given what he was facing. "You guys are serious… good, good… This ain't no time for me to be fooling around either." He suddenly turned back around and shouted, "Why did you kill my little Aps!? I'm gonna make you play with my new pet, so you won't get in the way of my search for a bride!"

Immediately Cloud, Tifa, and Cait Sith fell back into their respective combat poses, and if the situation hadn't been so serious Elena would have laughed until she cried at the sight of Reeve's little toy seated on top of a robotic moogle, ready for combat.

"Rapps!" bellowed Don Corneo. "Come here!"

There was an unearthly screech, and then a dragon flew down from the sky. It was only a small dragon, but in the grand scheme of things it would still be a near-impossible fight, even for Turks.

Somehow, Cloud and his friends won. She had no idea how, but a wannabe SOLDIER, a bare-fisted girl from the boondocks, and a toy cat on a robot Moogle slew the dragon.

No wonder Rude and Reno didn't want to fight them.

"Wait… Just wait a second!"

Don Corneo's voice dragged Elena back to reality, and she looked over at where he had fallen back a pace, looking completely stunned.

"Shut up!" snarled Cloud, his sword ready to strike the bastard down.

"Just listen to me," said Corneo, raising empty hands. "It won't take long. Why do you think a bad guy like me would swallow his pride and plead for his life?"

"Because he's a cowardly sack of shit," Elena muttered.

Corneo didn't hear. Instead, he offered options: "One, because he's ready to die. Two, because he's sure to win. Three, because he's clueless."

Despite the distance, Elena was pretty sure Cloud rolled his eyes. "Because he's clueless."

Don Corneo barked out a laugh. "Close, but no cigar!" He waved one hand, and Elena saw Yuffie suddenly swing upside down — and then the world rotated around her too, and the sickening drop was suddenly beneath her head, startling a scream from her. Yuffie yelled something too, but all Elena could focus on was the empty air beneath her head, the open sky above her feet, and the blood rushing to her head.

It was, oddly enough, Cait Sith's voice that called her back to what was going on across the gap — that little squeaky voice with that ridiculous accent Reeve must have programmed into it somehow, snapping, "You sure are vulgar!"

It was so unlike Reeve that Elena had to bite back a laugh. In this situation, she couldn't be certain the laugh wouldn't turn into hysterics.

"Now, give me your women, too!" Don Corneo demanded, proving once and for all that he thought of nothing but that rotting piece of flesh between his legs. He cackled, adding, "I guess I'm the one laughing last!"

"No," said Reno's cold, clear voice. "That would be us."

The cackle stopped abruptly. "What— what's going on? Who's there!?" Don Corneo demanded.

Elena's eyes flew wide as the redheaded Turk stepped out from behind Cloud's party, casually strolling along the palm of the carved hand and climbing onto the thumb.

"The Turks!" Don Corneo breathed.

Elena could only stare.

They hadn't abandoned her.

Reno pushed his bangs out of his eyes, only for them to fall right back into place. "You knew this was gonna happen ever since you leaked that secret," he drawled. His slum accent had almost entirely gone, and Elena wondered if this was the Reno that so terrified the people of Midgar. She had never seen him before. "We're going to take care of you… personally."

"Dammit!" snarled Corneo. "Then they're all goin' with me!" He started to raise his arm, and then screamed as a knife suddenly plunged into it. He stumbled backwards, off the edge of the fingers, and only barely managed to catch on with his other hand.

"Good timing, Rude," Reno commented, his eyes never leaving the fallen Don.

There was a moment of silence, and then Rude said, "...Let's get to work."

If Elena didn't know better, she'd think Rude actually sounded angry.

Then Reno leapt off the thumb of the mountain-statue, over Cloud's head (the false SOLDIER didn't so much as twitch) and onto the palm, then casually strolled to where Don Corneo was desperately hanging onto the edge. He watched the greasy bastard for a moment, and then slowly, carefully rested his foot on the Don's fingers. "All right, Corneo," he said, still cold, still accentless. "This'll be over quick, so listen up. Why do you think we went to all the trouble of teaming up with those guys to get you...?"

Elena's eyes went wide again. Reno and Rude had teamed up with Cloud to catch Corneo? Why?

Reno spoke again, and malice and cruelty danced in his every word. "One: because we were ready to die. Two: because we were sure of victory. Three: because we were clueless."

Oh, Shiva, how long had they been watching?

Desperately, Don Corneo said, "Two… Number two?"

In her mind's eye, Elena could see Reno smiling like a shark. "All wrong," he said, and ground his heel against Don Corneo's hand.

"No…! Wait, sto—!"

Reno lifted his foot, and Don Corneo plunged off the mountainside, his scream quickly fading to nothing.

Casually, as if he hadn't just murdered a man in cold blood, Reno pushed his bangs out of his eyes again. "The correct answer was…"

"Because it's our job," Rude finished.

Elena was so relieved that it was over that she couldn't keep the words from slipping out: "Oh, thank you very much! I never expected you'd come help..."

Her voice trailed off as Reno turned to her. "Elena, don't act so weak," he said coldly. "You're a Turk."

So it hadn't been about her after all. That was… disappointing, but at least not surprising to learn. They'd seen the opportunity to fulfill the mission and taken it. Probably because she'd had the stupidity to get captured. "Y… yes, sir!" she managed to get out anyway.

An awkward silence descended, finally broken by Cait Sith. "You guys have some good in you," he said.

Elena wasn't sure how Reno kept from bursting into laughter at those words. She wasn't sure how she stopped from laughing. How much had it cost Reeve to say that to them?

The ring of a cell phone forestalled further conversation, and Reno reached into his jacket to answer. "Yes, this is Reno," he said, slum accent still missing from his voice. "Yes… yes… I'll get on it right away."

As he hung up, Elena couldn't stop herself from asking, "Was that the company?" She had to keep her focus on Reno, or she'd start watching the drop again and she was terrified she might just break if she did.

"Yeah," Reno drawled, and suddenly he was sloppy, scruffy Reno again. "They want us to find Cloud…"

Immediately Cloud, Tifa, and even Cait Sith all went tense, ready to fight. Silence fell again, to be broken by Rude this time. "Are we on…?"

"No," Reno said after a moment, "today we're off duty."

Everyone relaxed, and then Yuffie apparently had had enough of hanging upside down. "Hey— who cares about that?" she demanded. "Get— me— down—!"

Cloud muttered something she couldn't quite catch, then strode past Reno to begin work on freeing Yuffie. Tifa followed him, but Cait Sith lingered for just a moment, the little cat face turning from her to Reno to (presumably) Rude, before he joined the others.

Elena wondered if Reeve was able to record what he saw through Cait Sith. (She wondered how Cait Sith even worked.)

Reno sauntered over, looking at her with absolutely no expression on his face. "So," he said.

Rude joined him and said nothing, and Elena wondered if they were waiting for Cloud's party to leave with Yuffie before they did anything to help her.

She saw the knife in Rude's hand just seconds before he moved, much faster than anything his size had any right to be, cutting through the ropes binding her to the stone face. There was a sick instant where she fell, but Reno caught the front of her suit and brutally yanked her to him, righting her at the same time.

The world spun around her, and she cried out in mingled pain, fear, and relief, burying her face in Reno's shoulder despite how weak it made her look. She could barely stand as it was.

"Fuck's sake, Elena," Reno snarled, but he didn't push her away.

She breathed deeply, once, twice, inhaling smoke, blood, and spilled whiskey, and fought down the incipient hysterics. The rush of pain to her hands and feet was subsiding, and she gingerly tried to stand on her own. She only barely managed to muffle a cry when her legs buckled beneath her, but Reno's arms had tightened around her, holding her upright. Over his shoulder, she could see that Yuffie was having similar difficulty standing, though she was clinging to Tifa rather than to Cloud.

The his strong, slender fingers were under her chin, lifting her gaze away from Yuffie to his mako-stained eyes. "We're gonna talk about this later, yo," he warned her.

Heat flooded her cheeks and she knew he could see her blushing. "Yeah," she agreed, dropping her eyes.

He released her chin, but kept one arm around her waist. "Rude!" he called to his partner, then added, "Ela não pode ficar sozinha, yo."

Speaking in Costan wasn't fair, Elena decided.

She bit back a squeak as Rude suddenly lifted her into his arms bridal style. "Relax," he said quietly, eyes flicking to her beneath the sunglasses.

Reno grabbed her wrist and checked the bracer she wore under her suit, then snorted. "That how they nabbed you, 'Lena? No Materia?"

She flushed and said nothing, but she looked away from him to where Cloud had hoisted Yuffie onto his back. The Wutaian girl was looking at her, and when she saw the expression on Elena's face, she waved cheerily and called back, "Yi hui-r!"

Rude jostled her slightly. "What does she mean, later?"

"I thought later was when we were talking about it," she said, and Rude gave her a warning glare.

"I've half a mind to just have Rude dump you over the side," Reno muttered.

Panic surged in her, and she tried to scramble out of Rude's arms, which were suddenly far too high. The big Turk swore and only barely managed to keep her from cracking her head on the ground. To her surprise, though, it wasn't her he was annoyed with. "Reno…"

"Everything okay over there?" called Cait Sith.

Reno muttered, "Reeve, d'you fuckin' mind?" and then called back, "Just fine, yo. Piss off already."

Rude set Elena down, but kept her seated with a hand on her shoulder. Elena drew her knees to her chest and laid her head on them, focusing on breathing. It was fine. Rude wouldn't really have thrown her off the mountain. Not in front of Cloud and his friends. Not in front of Reeve. Turks acted united in front of outsiders.

When she looked up again, Cloud, Tifa, Cait Sith, and Yuffie were all gone, and Reno was crouched in front of her. "Didn't think you were scared of heights, 'Lena."

"You try hanging upside over empty air, see how you like it!" she snapped. "Or hanging off the side of a cliff by rope for hours!"

Something almost like shame flickered in Reno's eyes, but he retorted, "An' who was it went runnin' off after that creep with no backup?"

"I am not discussing this with you," she hissed. "It can wait for the debriefing."

Reno's eyes narrowed, but Rude reached over Elena's shoulder and covered his mouth. "Enough," he rumbled. "Sound carries up here."

There was blood spatter on the cuff of his usually pristine white shirt.

Reno made an exasperated noise and rose to his feet. "Fine, whatever. We're leaving."

Elena thought about staying right where she was, but Rude put his hand under her elbow and lifted her to her feet without a word. Gingerly, she put weight on them again, but the pain had subsided enough to make walking bearable.

It was a long, quiet trip down the side of the mountain. Reno stalked ahead, his body language that of an offended cat; Rude kept pace with her despite how agonisingly slow she found herself moving. Her breathing came easier as they descended, and somehow, every time she looked up from her feet or from Reno's stiff back, Rude was always in her line of sight, blocking the empty air on the other side of the trail.

Muhanji was waiting at the bottom, much to her surprise. From the way Reno stalked over, Elena suspected he was surprised, too. "Ya mind explainin' just what the hell happened?" he drawled, towering over the infantryman.

Most people quailed away from Reno when he was in a mood. Elena suspected it wasn't even conscious; Reno was unpredictable and so people automatically tried to make themselves smaller targets.

Muhanji didn't even flinch. "We were ambushed by a teenager with a Seal Materia," he said softly, meeting Reno's eyes.

Reno snorted, unimpressed, and Elena felt more than saw Rude shift beside her. "Ribbons, yo. Ain't they standard issue?"

But Muhanji shook his head, a vexed expression briefly crossing his face. "Not here. No Materia, so no reason for us to have them."

Reno stiffened in outrage, but Rude spoke first. "According to Corporate?"

"According to Commander Jacoby," Muhanji clarified.

Elena wished that she had shot him.

Slowly, Reno tapped his electro-mag rod against his shoulder. "Ya mean ex-Commander," he said. "Seems the position's suddenly opened up. Want it?"

Muhanji looked as stunned as Elena felt. While it was true that Turks could give field promotions, they only ever did when the ranking commander died—

And then Elena remembered the line of dried blood on Rude's sleeve, the blood she'd smelled when Reno held her, how quick Rude could be with a knife.

Oh.

"No," Muhanji said after a moment, and Rude made a noise not unlike a laugh.

"Too bad, yo," said Reno cheerfully. "Congrats on your promotion. Get your men some fuckin' Ribbons." He reached back without looking, grabbed Elena's hand, and dragged her off in the direction of the bar.

She let him until Muhanji was out of sight (Turks are united in front of outsiders), but then she jerked free. "I'm done drinking," she told him.

He frowned. "'Lena—"

"I'm going to take a shower," she snapped, and turned toward the inn. She was not going to shatter in front of her lazy, feckless, confusing colleagues.

When she emerged from the bathroom, Reno and Rude were in her room.

She stared at them both, then sighed. "I guess it's later, huh."

"Yeah," said Reno. "So explain that bullshit about not thinking we'd come for ya."

"You gave me no reason to think you would," she snapped, pushing past him to get to a clean uniform.

His arm wrapped around her waist and spun her to face him, a dangerous look in his eyes. "Ya wanna explain that, 'Lena?"

"You don't like me," she retorted, stepping out of his hold. "You don't exactly hide it." Her eyes flicked from the fuming redhead over to Rude. "Neither of you do."

"So what? You're a Turk, yo," Reno snapped at her. He was angry. Well, so was she.

"That's what I thought, at first," she replied. "We're Turks. The suit ties us together." She let her towel fall to the ground and reached for her undergarments. Rude politely turned his face away, but Reno's furious eyes stayed on her. "Or at least it did. But you two only care about yourselves. You care more about getting drunk than stopping a fucking rapist!"

"That's not how it was, Elena," Reno said.

"Yeah? Then what was it?" she demanded.

"It was their mess to clean up."

Elena slapped him.

Reno stared at her, naked shock riding on his face.

"Get out," she snarled.

"Elena," Rude said quietly.

She whirled on him, hand raised, but didn't follow through.

"We tried to bring him in, once," he went on. "Eight years ago."

Confused, she let her hand fall. "What?"

"Heidegger made us let him go," Reno growled. "The information he fed the Company, apparently, was worth more than the women he hurt — as long as he never went above the Plate with it. I'm from the slums, 'Lena; did you really think I wouldn't have tried to book that bastard first chance I got?"

"I don't know what you would've done!" she snapped. "I don't know what either of you would have done eight years ago! I only know that you're both selfish, lazy, elitist jerks."

Reno came out of his chair and towered over her. "Ya wanna say that to my face?"

She stared into his eyes. "I just did, yo."

Rude reached over her shoulder and pushed Reno back down. "Let her get dressed," he said calmly.

The redhead huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, but he somehow managed to stay quiet until she was in a clean uniform. "So ya went after Corneo 'cause you thought we didn't care," he said when she was.

"I believe that has been established," she said, narrowing her eyes.

"Why didn't ya ask why we weren't goin' out, yo?"

"Because I had no reason to believe you'd tell me!" Elena snapped.

"Since when?" Reno demanded.

"Since always!" she yelled. "Every time I try to ask you anything, it's 'Elena, you talk too much', or 'quiet, rookie', or something else! Even when we're not on duty, it's always you two leading the way, with barely a 'come on, 'Lena' as an order because Tseng said you have to keep me near you! Sweet Shiva, could you make it any more obvious that you hate me!?"

Silence fell.

"'Lena—" Reno began.

"I'm not an idiot, Reno," she whispered. "Do you think I can't tell when I'm not wanted? Do you think I don't know Heidegger made Tseng take me on?" She looked from Reno to Rude. "That I don't know what you think of me?"

Neither one of them said a word.

"I'm leaving," said Elena, and strode for the door.

Rude caught her shoulder, gently but firmly pulling her away. Without warning, Reno's arms were around her, and Rude was holding him, and she was trapped in the embrace of her seniors. "'Lena, you idiot," Reno said softly, his breath hot against her ear. "It wasn't you we hated, yo."

"But we showed it badly," Rude said. "And that's our own fault."

Now that was the understatment of the year.

"We fucked up," Reno acknowledged. "It was obvious what Heidegger was doin', yo — he was hopin' you'd get Rude killed or somethin'. He didn't count on you actually bein' pretty kickass."

"The Board of Directors — except for the current President and Reeve — have been trying to get rid of the Department of Administrative Research since the rest of the Turks went AWOL," Rude added. "Rufus blocked them at every turn, so they tried getting us killed instead."

"Heidegger figured he could take advantage of my bein' hospitalised to get rid of Rude." Elena could feel him grinning against her cheek, and she suddenly knew that Reno had weathered at least one assassination attempt while recovering from his fight with Cloud.

"But we shouldn't have worn our resentment so openly," Rude said. Elena couldn't ever remember him having spoken this much in a week.

She wanted to yell some more, she wanted to snap at them, she wanted to pull away and leave and never come back.

Instead, she wrapped her arms around Reno and pressed herself tighter against Rude and matched her breathing to theirs. It was… comforting, being in their arms, Reno's chest tight against hers and Rude just as tight against her back.

She was a Turk.

"I knew you'd come," she whispered, knowing they could feel every word as it left her.

"We were on our way as soon as we heard your voice," Reno murmured. "You're our rookie, yo."

A sudden knock on the door broke into the bubble that had unexpectedly formed around them, and Rude turned to it with a growl. As he checked outside, Reno reached up to tuck some of Elena's hair behind one of her ears. "Ya look different without makeup on," he murmured.

Elena rolled her eyes. "All women do, idiot." But her tone was easy. She hadn't quite forgiven them, but she knew that she one day would.

"Elena," said Rude. She looked up, and blinked when she recognised her stolen Materia in his hands, along with a note in Wutaian.

Reno took the Materia and settled them into her bracer, letting her scan the note. When she snorted, he looked up. "What?"

Elena smiled. "Apparently Yuffie is 'loaning' my Materia back to me. And wants me to ditch the Turks to go hunt down perverts."

"Not a chance," said Reno fiercely. "But maybe in your spare time."

"Well, since we're off-duty…"

Rude's arms closed around her, and she tilted her head up to look at his face. From this angle, she could actually see his eyes beneath the omnipresent sunglasses. "We're staying here," he said firmly. "And we're all going to talk."

"Sounds like a plan, yo," Reno agreed, sitting down on her bed.

Elena nodded. "All right."

No, she didn't regret joining the Turks at all.