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"This feeling. Is this what you meant by doing something for someone you care about?"

—Shelke

Shelke the Transparent (無式(=無色)のシェルク, Mushiki no Sheruku^?, lit. "Shelke the Expressionless (Colorless)"), real name Shelke Rui, is the fourth member of the Tsviets from Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-. Born in 1991, she is nineteen-years-old in Dirge of Cerberus, though she is permanently stuck in the body of a young girl. Shelke is voiced by Fumiko Orikasa in Japanese and by Kari Wahlgren in English.

She fights with two EM sabers, linked together with a cord similar to nunchaku. Her main skill within the Tsviets is retrieving information from the Worldwide Network by means of a Synaptic Net Dive, or SND. However, her skills are not limited to computers.

Appearance and PersonalityEdit

"I... I don't really know. However, since coming here I have realized one thing. I don't want to let down anyone who's counting on me."

—Shelke to Nero

Shelke has fairly pale skin, light blue "mako eyes", and short red hair with bangs that frame her face. She wears a blue turtleneck Deepground uniform with gloves and a breastplate bearing the Deepground insignia. Her uniform also has containers on the back of her legs to hold her sabers. Chronologically, Shelke is 19 but has the physical appearance of her nine-year-old self.

Shelke is initially an innocent young girl, but because of her ten years in Deepground, she became a hollow shell almost completely devoid of emotion. Suffering from isolation and mental scars, she talks in a robotic manner and thinks like a computer, making decisions based on logic instead of emotions. As she interacts with Vincent and his friends, Shelke begins to experience an unforeseen side effect from her work within the Tsviets.

She experiences Lucrecia Crescent's memories and feels what she would have felt. These feelings compel her to help Vincent, although she never admits to this. They also allow Shelke to regain her own emotions as well as develop an emotional attachment to Vincent, supposedly as a result of absorbing part of Lucrecia's consciousness.

StoryEdit

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. (Skip section)

Early lifeEdit

In 2000, Shelke was abducted by Shinra at age nine to be inducted into SOLDIER, with the intention of using her rare SND abilities to develop a new type of warfare. However, as the Turks were taking Shelke to Midgar, Deepground SOLDIERs attacked and she was taken to Deepground.

In the following years, Shelke was subjected to numerous experiments and rigorous training while Deepground analyzed her SND abilities for their own purposes. The procedures left her stunted, permanently appearing as a nine-year-old girl, and requiring daily treatments of mako to survive. In the process, Shelke was made a member of the Tsviets, after Rosso the Crimson, Nero the Sable, and Weiss the Immaculate.

MultiplayerEdit

After Genesis Rhapsodos rejected Weiss's request to join the resistance against the Restrictors and left Deepground, Shelke and Argento uploaded the HJ Virus into Deepground's supercomputer and freed everyone under the Restrictors' control by rendering their restriction chips useless. With the Tsviets in need of another worthy candidate, Shelke was ordered to use her SND abilities to manipulate the candidate's thoughts and memories, therefore giving that person a deep-seated hatred towards the Restrictors.

Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-Edit

"So? I don't understand... how someone could give her own life for that of another. Do you understand, Vincent Valentine?"

—Shelke to Vincent

After using an SND to locate the carrier of the Protomateria, Vincent Valentine, Shelke appears to him during Deepground's attack on Kalm with Azul the Cerulean. They demand him to give them the Protomateria in his possession. However, Shelke loses power and faints, causing Azul to retreat with her.

Later when infiltrating the WRO headquarters with Azul, Shelke uses her cloaking ability to follow Vincent and Reeve until Shalua sees her. Upon reuniting with her long-lost sister, Shelke recalls the torture she went through in Deepground for the past ten years, and how she held onto the sliver of hope that someone would rescue her except no one came. She then fights two battles against Vincent before being sedated.

After coming to a few days later, Shelke tells Shalua she made a mistake in letting her enemy live, and threatens to attack again until Azul escapes his holding cell within the WRO headquarters. Managing to stop Azul's rampage with a shield materia, Shelke learns from him that she is now targeted for termination, as she has outlived her usefulness to the Tsviets. She survives thanks to Shalua, who held the monstrous Azul at bay long enough for Shelke and Vincent to escape.

However, the sacrifice left Shalua in an eternal coma. Unable to understand the point behind Shalua's actions, Shelke calls her a fool and gets slapped across the face and scolded by Yuffie for doing so. Then Shelke has Vincent explain to her why someone would give their life for others before she suddenly experiences one of Lucrecia's memories. Reeve then asks Vincent if he found the rest of Lucrecia's research on Omega.

Shelke reveals to them she had previously absorbed some of Lucrecia's data into her mind to study it in order to find the Protomateria. Shelke offers to combine that data with the rest Vincent found in Nibelheim to give them a clearer picture of what they will be up against and regain control of her mind.

On board the Shera, Shelke creates a terminal for her use and performs another SND, providing everyone with a better understand of Omega. Before he departs, Shelke gives Vincent his cellphone after slightly modifying it so he can call her directly for any guidance, although she is adamant that she is only helping the WRO for her own benefit. When Vincent tells Shelke that he is counting on her, she is confused since no one has ever counted on her before. She uses the information she gathers from the network to aid in the infiltration of Midgar, and monitor the Shera's damages along with Vincent's movements through Midgar.

When Vincent reaches the remains of Shinra Headquarters, he begins losing control of Chaos again. In Lucrecia's voice, Shelke tells him Chaos's nature and how the Protomateria enabled him to control it until Rosso took it from him. She implores Vincent to fight Chaos's influence and expresses that she does not want him to die, but her SND visor short circuits. Shelke then offers to help Cid check on a situation in the engine room. Inside the engine room, she finds the crew missing and her former comrade, Nero. Not wanting to let down everyone who's counting on her, Shelke attempts to fight Nero off before being captured by his dark powers, but she survives by using her shield materia.

As Shelke thinks about giving up hope, she experiences more of Lucrecia's memories and one from her own past, where Shalua comforted her about their mother's death. She has a vision of Shalua asking if she can return to the Planet. Shelke tells her that she cannot but Shalua reassures her they will see each other again. After rubbing it off as "data interference", a tear rolls down Shelke's face, surprising her, as she believed she did not have any tears left. She is then rescued by Vincent before her materia's power runs out. He places her in a regeneration tube so she can regain her strength.

While Vincent is in a confrontation with Weiss, Shelke projects a holographic image of Lucrecia to Vincent, encouraging him to take control of Chaos rather than overpower it. After Omega awakens and Chaos takes over Vincent, Shelke emerges from her regeneration tube. Theorizing the Lifestream within Omega to act like a network, she performs a SND to dive into Omega and retrieve the Protomateria.

While she is restrained by darkness and struggles to reach for it, an obscured figure resembling Lucrecia gives Shelke the Protomateria. Emerging from Omega, Shelke momentarily takes on Lucrecia's appearance and gives it back to Vincent, enabling him to regain control of Chaos. Vincent saves her and she joins Reeve, Yuffie, and the others as they witness Omega's defeat.

About a week after the Battle of Midgar, Shelke is living with Cloud and Tifa at 7th Heaven in Edge, although it is unknown what she does now having left Deepground. Now realizing she is not alone, she is starting to fill the 10 year void in her life. When the others want to get Vincent out of Lucrecia's Cave, they send Shelke, now wearing ordinary clothes, to get him. She tells Vincent the others are waiting, and although she doesn't mind, she does not understand why they sent her to get him. Seeing Lucrecia in Shelke, Vincent smiles as the both of them look at what appears to be remains of Omega in the sky.

Spoilers end here.

BattleEdit

Main article: Shelke (Boss)

Shelke is fought as a boss in Chapter 4 at the WRO Headquarters.

Other AppearancesEdit

Final Fantasy Trading Card GameEdit

Shelke is depicted on two trading cards in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game. She is part of "Ice" card set.

Trading card.

Trading card.

EtymologyEdit

The word shelke is Urdu for "orange".

In the Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Ultimania, Shelke's name and epithet are rendered as 「無式(=無色)のシェルク」, referring to the fact that her title is a pun meaning both "Expressionless" (無式, Mushiki^?) and "Colorless" (無色, Mushiki^?).

GalleryEdit

Weapon artwork.

Visor artwork.

Shelke performing the SND.

Shelke using her invisibility.

In-game Shelke.

Promo artwork of Shelke, Azul, and Rosso.

The Tsviets.

Shelke preparing to fight Nero.

Shelke's cellphone.

TriviaEdit

Shelke's title may also be a reference to her ability of becoming transparent, as used before her fight in Chapter 4.
Shelke shares her English voice actress with Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca from Final Fantasy XII.
When Shelke points her nunchaku at Reeve, the lighted section is the same length as the metal rod that makes up its body. However, when she attempts to slice Shalua's skull with them, the light dissipates in water (more specifically, the water released when Reeve shot the sprinkler system), showing that the lighted section is at least four inches longer than the rod. This is never explained.