Politesse lifted the cigarette to her lips with her delicate hands. The smoke reflected on her dark sunglasses. Then, she looked at her cards once more.

 Opposite her was Blazer, the arrogant and brash one of the group. He was eyeing her cautiously, waiting for some reaction to form on her face. Politesse was good at the game. She rarely ever had an expression on her face when playing poker. In that way, she took after her father, Rude, an ex-Turk. But unlike him being expressionless all the time, she did have expressions on her own face… she always looked polite, even when delivering a blow, or a really below the belt insult.

 “Ready?” Runner asked, the dealer of the game, sitting to her left.

 “If you’re ready to lose,” Politesse said coolly.

 “So sure, younger sister,” her brother Erratic, sitting on her right, said sardonically.

 “As sure as I am of you forgetting to use a condom tonight.”

 Erratic grinned, as unruly as his father, Reno. And just like his father, he was messily dressed, with his wild red hair tied up into a uneven braid. He put down his cards. Everyone else did.

 “Royal flush, gentlemen,” Politesse said, as polite as her name suggested. “Now pay up, please.”

 “God damn!” Blazer swore, throwing down his cards. “How does she do that, Erratic? How??”

“Don’t ask,” Erratic replied, scowling at the loss of a hundred gil.

 Runner sighed.

 “Is that all you can do, Runner?? Sigh?? Show some backbone, boy!” Blazer exclaimed. Runner was twenty-six, so he wasn’t a boy, being only two years younger than Blazer himself.

 “I don’t see the point, man. Politesse always wins.”

 Politesse smiled sweetly at Runner. He was so shy and soft-spoken Politesse found him extremely cute. But he was nowhere as cool as their leader, though.

 Vincent Valentine swept into the small hotel room which they all shared just for that afternoon. He no longer wore the heavy red cloak and cape of before, but the blue uniform of the Turks. It had been a good style thirty years ago, and Vincent still thought it a good way to dress.

 “Boss!” Runner sat up. He idolized Vincent, who had helped him before when he was only a ten year old urchin in the streets. Vincent had given him financial support to get through school.

 “Turks,” Vincent said in greeting, nodding at each of them in acknowledgment.

 “So what do we do today, boss?” Erratic asked.

 “We’re going to see Avalanche.”

 Erratic whistled. “And Lucrecia, right?”

 Blazer, Runner and Erratic found it a pleasure to see Lucrecia. After that, they mainly bickered about who she liked best, but Politesse knew better. Lucrecia and Storm, according to Magdalena, were close to becoming an item.

 “It’ll be good to see Maggie and Lu again,” Politesse said. “They have a singing competition tonight, you know.”

 “Yeah… the Angels of the Sky always win.”

 Runner smiled a little. “You don’t sound too bad yourself, either, Politesse.”

 She smiled at him again.

 “Amusements aside, children, Avalanche is holding an expedition to the City of the Ancients soon, with Lucrecia as the lead, and we are going along to escort her,” Vincent told them.

 There was a bemused silence.

 “City of the Ancients… why does that sound so familiar to me?” Erratic asked, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

 “Because we’ve all heard of it, duh, you idiot,” Blazer said.

 “Why?”

 “Because, bozo,” Blazer began exclaiming, “that’s where the great Aeris Gainsborough was…” he paused, his voice dropping an octave. “Killed.”

 Another silence as they thought about that story.

 “I’d love to be able to meet her,” Runner said softly. “She sounds like a wonderful person.”

 “She was,” Vincent’s voice was just as soft. “Putting our history lesson aside, shall we go, as in, now?”

 The young Turks rose from their seats almost immediately.

“On our way to Midgar, Midgar, Midgar,” they sang on the way there. Runner was driving, Vincent beside him. The other three were behind, Erratic sitting in the middle because he ‘didn’t want no blazing jackass touching my sister’.

 Vincent was the only silent one, in the front seat, an arm on the window sill of the convertible. Like their uniforms, the car was blue, a sleek Barrian version280. He didn’t mind that the wind was blowing his long black hair all over the place, in fact, he liked it. He glanced at the young Turks and allowed himself a smile.

 He had come a long way from being the youngest in the team of Turks sixty years ago. Falling in love with Professor Lucrecia had him locked away in a coffin by her malicious husband for thirty years until Avalanche had freed him. He looked at his face in the mirror. No, he still looked the same. Every passing year he had searched for some way to undo the changes Hojo had implemented on him, but he finally gave up and decided that he would never age… it was frustrating to stay looking like a twenty-seven year old and thinking like an eighty-year old man. At least, he thought wryly, he wasn’t senile.

 He closed his eyes and thought of his son and younger daughter in Wutai. Godo was a fine young man now, and ready to take on the reins of Wutai. Vincent enjoyed his country-side rambles with his son. He often wished his life had turned out differently, but as it happens, Godo was proud of his father, and nothing could make Vincent feel better than that. Vincent was proud of Godo, too, who was named after his grandfather. Akiranni, recently sixteen, was turning out the exact way her mother had been when Avalanche first picked her up… an annoying, immature teen.

 Akiranni was just as lovely as her mother, though. Vincent’s thoughts took a pleasant turn as Yuffie appeared in his mind’s eye. A long time ago, the love of his life had been Lucrecia, but as the years passed, the memory of Lucrecia numbed him so much he couldn’t bear it anymore and sought someone who would at least be distracting enough. And that person had been Yuffie. She was loud, out-spoken, and at the age of fourty-six, still annoying to be with. But Vincent loved her for that. She was certainly much more mature, though.

 “We’re here,” Runner announced as the car screeched to a halt. Vincent got out of the car while the other Turks bellowed for the Avalanche members their age.

 “Daddy!” Lucrecia ran towards the car, her arms open in welcome.

 “Lucrecia,” Vincent smiled gently, opening his arms as well to embrace her. Named after his former lover, Lucrecia was certainly one of the greatest lights of his life. As beautiful as her Wutain mother and with the amber eyes he once had, she never had any lack of admirers.

 “YO STORM!!!” Blazer hollered.

 “YO BLAZER!!!” Storm hollered back.

 “YO SIMON!!!” Blazer yelled again.

 “YO BLAZER!!” Simon yelled back.

 The two young men were crossing the yard already. Erratic and Blazer came forward to shake their hands in greeting.

 “Lita!” Magadalena called, running to greet her friend.

 “Hi, Maggie!” Politesse hugged Magdalena, then hugged Lucrecia. “Hey, Lu! How’s the practise coming along?”
 Already rowdy, Blazer, Storm, Simon and Erratic were slapping each other on the back.

 “Go join them,” Vincent prompted the quiet-looking Runner. Runner turned uncertain eyes to his idol, then nodded.

 “Hey guys,” Runner called as he approached.

 “C’mon join us,” Erratic said, smiling. He knew of Runner’s uncertain nature and wasn’t averse to playing big brother to him.

 Vincent smiled contentedly at the cozy scene: three young Turks with the Avalanche members, and the three girls whispering amongst each other with their girl-talk. Now it was his turn. He strode toward the buildings, where the older members of Avalanche had taken up permanent residence. He had declined to stay there when they had been built, preferring to travel the world. He did, covering nearly every town on the Planet, and stopped by Wutai. Yuffie had become First Lady by then, and had been under pressure. So he and Yuffie had a pleasant two-way arrangement which solved their problems.

 “Now, if it ain’t the vampire at our #*$^ing doorstep!” Cid exclaimed as he was walking out of the door.

 “Welcome back, Vincent,” Cloud said, obvious pleasure in his voice. Tifa was at his side. “I’m glad you had some time to visit.”

 “Lucrecia’s archaeology plans are underway?” Vincent asked.

 “Oh, yes. We’ve made a date for next week for the expedition into the City of the Ancients. Cid is going to captain the Highwind while the kids go down into it.”

 “Are you sure they’ll be all right?” Vincent had a worried little frown on his face.

 Tifa laughed. “They’re all over twenty, Vincent. Kindly remember that Cloud was only twenty when he took command of
Avalanche.” She chuckled again at Vincent’s sigh. “You’re starting to sound your age, you really are!” she teased.

 “Hell, yeah,” Cid said, his teeth gnawing on a toothpick, which he’d taken up since giving up smoking. “How old again? Eighty-something, right?”

 “Eighty-seven.”

 “Hell! That’s *@#$ing old!! However did you and Yuffie get together with you as old as that I’d never understand!” There was a slight pause. “Oh, yeah, speaking of Yuffie, she’s coming by, ya know.”

 “Yuffie is coming by?” Vincent was startled. As far as he knew, she had not left Wutai since becoming First Lady except for the Avalanche reunions.

 “Yeap. She’s bringin’ along Akiranni. Says Godo’s old enough to take care of Wutai, so she wants some fresh air.”

 “I hope,” Cloud said dryly, “that Akiranni doesn’t take to  stealing our materia.”

 The rest of them chuckled. Yuffie’s letters to them had rather plaintively spoken of her daughter’s wild tendencies.

 “We all know who she takes in that!” Cid commented.

“Actually, I did a fair bit of crazy things in my time,” Vincent admitted.

 “Okay, then, we know who else she takes after in that!”

 Everyone laughed again. Life was good, Cloud thought as he held Tifa’s hand in his. Before, it had been so full of uncertainty of whether they would even live. He still felt pangs of regret whenever he heard Aeris’ name mentioned, and strongly approved of Storm’s interest in Lucrecia. His eyes wandered to look at them now… they were together, Lucrecia having approached Storm, the way Aeris, open-hearted Aeris, had approached him.

 I want to meet you, she’d said.

 Tifa squeezed his hand, as if reading his mind. She knew of Cloud’s still blurry feelings over Aeris, but, truth was, she missed Aeris too. Cloud never even got to sort out his feelings for both women, but in a way, Tifa was glad. She’d nearly given up on Cloud sometime after they’d all dispersed their own ways for the time being but she had a dream, a dream in which Aeris had told her never to give up on Cloud.

 Yes, Aeris. I do love him, she sent her thought out into the heavens. And we still miss you.

 Tifa thought of how well Lucrecia fitted with her son, and smiled in approval. Storm looked at his parents uncertainly, and Tifa gave him a reassuring nod. Storm said something to Lucrecia, which must have been something good, because her smile was blinding. Storm was so much like his father in the endearing ways. In other ways, he was like herself, smart, businesslike, tough.

 “How has other things been in my absence?” Vincent was asking.

 “Nothing much,” Cloud answered. “Reeve and Scarlet planning a party to celebrate their twenty-eighth year together, Red and Salene still not making any moves in their relationship. We should be asking what’s been happening with you. How are the new Turks?”

 “Doing quite well,” Vincent said mildly. “Considering the fact that two of them have ex-Turks as parents, don’t you think they’d do well? I’m a bit worried about Runner, though. He’s quiet… doesn’t fit too well with the boisterous nature of the others.”

 “But they’re living up to their name right?”

 Vincent smiled sardonically. “What name? As political dirt cleaners?”

 Cloud cleared his throat. “As a crack-shot team for Shin-ra.”

 “Oh, yes, then they’re bearing up quite well. Politesse would make a fine leader, though Runner would do as well.”

 “Not Erratic or Blazer?”

 “Be serious. The group's reputation would fall to pieces with Erratic in the lead.”

"Oh, yes, Elena did tell me something of the latest scandal in the elitest circuit," Tifa murmured.

"Irresponsible little #&*$," Cid said.

"It would have been preferable to have them join up into Avalanche, of course. But then again, it has always been fun this way. They have to begin their administrating lessons soon," Vincent absently rubbing his golden claw of a hand.

"What, Turks were administrators?" Cid was surprised. "I thought they were just (#$%ing workers paid to do the dirty work."

"Like secret agents, Cid. Of course, there's been nothing to hide lately, but they've been doing some excellent work finding out some nasty things about the Science Department of old. Apparently, Hojo's notes had been preserved in a safe. They blasted it out, and later we're going to move them into Lucrecia's lab."

"Ah, yes, Hojo's replacement," Cloud said. "She's a good choice."

"When is Yuffie coming by?" Vincent wanted to know.

"By next week," Cid answered, grinning at his friend. "Ya really wanna see her, eh?"

Vincent ignored the dirty-looking blond man.