Fuck Yeah Before Crisis

As noted on my personal blog, my head canon for Nunchaku is that he returns to Bone Village and helps his family manage the suddenly valuable oil rich land they now own. Eventually he and Rod go on to found a motorcycle company, Aspani Motors, as a sub branch of Nunchaku’s family’s piano company. (My head canon is Nunchaku is wealthy because his parents own a piano company). That little bit of head canon aside, my general take on what happens to the Turks is they live their lives.

In Case of Sinra, a few weeks after Meteor Fall Veld returns to the Turks to give them a lead about Rufus’s location. When the OG Turks ask him where the others are now Veld essentially tells them they’re spread out gathering intelligence but also living their own lives. Veld then leaves to meet up with Reeve in Junon (which is why it’s my head canon that Veld was very much involved in the foundation of the WRO). The Turks may also work as unofficial WRO operatives, part time intelligence gathering forces who are loyal to Rufus Shinra (he did save Veld and protected them by insuring Shin-ra thought they were dead) but aren’t on the pay roll. Some might find permanent positions in the WRO, others might go on to do whatever it is they want to do with their lives.

The WRO is an organization that is trying very hard to not seem related to Shin-ra because people blame Shin-ra for the world almost ending. So the WRO has to be careful not to seem too much like Shinra under a different banner. The fact is the WRO is officially headed by a former Shinra Executive (Reeve), funded with Shinra money (Rufus) and was probably formed in conjunction with another former Shinra Executive (Veld). Seriously, all surviving Shin-ra or former Shinra executives are involved in the WRO. The new Boss is the same as the old Boss.

But public trust probably depends on making the WRO look like something new and independent, so if the Turks work for the WRO in any capacity it is kept very much on the down low. Additionally, Rufus has Shin-ra Company exist as a separate entity with the OG Turks as known employees, so that at least it looks like Shin-ra exists as a separate thing rather than the WRO is Shinra. He might not want the BC Turks to officially work for him, because having Elena and her sister work together is a nightmare,  because they're an ace up his sleeve.  The Original Game's AVALANCHE doesn't recognize these Turks (though all of its members have met at least one of them at some point years ago, they're not as recognizable as the OG Turk's who are immediately recognized as Rufus's Turks), so it would be easier to get them into the WRO without raising eyebrows than one of the OG game Turks and they can do other work for Rufus without anyone figuring out he's directly involved. 

Of course, some of them may have retired to live ordinary lives. For example, Legend probably went back to Costa. In the end, it's entirely up to the writer. A writer might choose to kill off some or all of the BC Turks during the course of a Before Crisis fan fic (because this everyone lives stuff is just too happy of an ending, haven't you read Harry Potter, you have to kill off beloved characters, right?). A writer might choose to have them be active agents for Rufus or the WRO or both. A writer might choose for them to happily retire, maybe settle down and have kids. (Reno and Cissnei name their son Lea, he later becomes Axel, it makes sense, right?).

It's up to you.

What canon does indicate is two things.

1) They're most likely alive. Because if you accept the canon "everybody lives" ending, it kind invalidates to the point of the game's conclusion to have them all die off screen shortly after.

2) They're loyal to Rufus, as are the Original Game Turks, because he saved Veld and helped the BC Turks go into hiding. (Case of Shinra seems to indicate the Turks are basically Rufus's family, even if he doesn't admit it, they all care for each other).

3) At one point they served as an intelligence gathering force.

4) But they don't directly work for Shinra anymore, though they could come back at some point. 

It's not clear whether the former employees Reno mentions in ACC are the BC Turks, but it's certainly possible. 

For me, it's Nunchaku.

When I first looked at the characters I thought I'd be drawn to Gun. (I tend to like characters who look like me because ever sense I was a little kid I wanted a video game character who well looked at me (which wasn't easy, since I'm a girl and most video game characters tended to be dudes). I liked Sonja in Mortal Combat. The feeling of "that could be me". As we all know, we need more female video game characters and more diversity because POC have it pretty bad in terms of presentation. Social justice rant, done. I promise.) But once I got to know the characters two stood out of me.

Knives (Female) http://www.freewebs.com/gunshotromance/playeri.htm

and 

Nunchaku (Male). http://www.freewebs.com/gunshotromance/playerj.htm

I related to Knives because I'm cheerful, straight forward, sometimes clumsy (a lot), and I have a background that tends to make people go "what? Really? I'm so sorry." (which I don't really get, what's there to be sorry about? It's done, I'm fine, life is life and being alive is great). I like the Knives has a rough back ground but instead of making her dark and brooding she's cheerful. Too often writers and readers seem to have the attitude that "happy" = "privileged and naive" - which isn't always true. Knives seems determined, a go getter who takes care of what needs to be done. I like that.

For a long time Knives was my favorite (And if you ask me which BC Turks I'd most like to go out on a date with the answer is Knives, even though I prefer men I like her a lot).

Nunchaku became my absolute favorite last year after giving some thought to his backstory. At first glance, my thought of him was "he looks like he belongs as the cute uke in a yaoi manga." (By which I mean, he looks like he'd fit the tropes of that genre, which I happen to read- my head canon for this character is that he's completely straight and into Knives). At first I didn't give much thought to him, he was just the pretty little blonde one. 

Then I started thinking about his backstory and how much he doesn't fit with the others Turks. By and large, the Turks almost seem like a club of poster children for rough back grounds. You were raised to be a Turk (Cissnei, Gun with her military background) or raised out of a bad situation with the job offer (Rod- gang leader arrested by the Turks, Katana-arrested, Knives - street kid). Nunchaku came from a back ground where he had everything, he joined because he wanted the job. While some of the Turks were recruited from less dire backgrounds for their skills (Martial Arts Male and Female for their professional skills, Shotgun for her renown as a hunter), only Two Guns and Nunchaku really seemed to want the job. Two Guns being a much more likely candidate because he'd worked for the mob.

What is a pampered little rich boy doing in the Turks? How could someone so friendly and optimistic fit in to such a grim world? 

That's what drew me to Nunchaku. The fact this character makes no sense. 

While trying to make sense of him, I ended up falling in love with his character. As an out going optimist myself I could relate to his friendly attitude. I could put a lot of my personality into writing him which made him easier to write. Although my version of the character isn't just a self-insert, he has his own struggles and a very different background from mine (see above comment about relating to Knives). In sum, I found him fascinating, relatable, and I just plain lovable.