Shelke the Transparent

Overview

Shelke the Transparent (in Japanese, Mushiki no Sheruku, lit. "Shelke the Expressionless (Colorless)"), real name Shelke Rui, is the third member of the Tsviets from Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII. Abducted and made a part of the Deepground project when she was only nine, she is nineteen years old in Dirge of Cerberus. However, the experiments performed on her body have left her stuck in the body of a young girl. She fights with two electrically-charged sabers, linked together with a cord similar to nunchaku.

Shelke is voiced by Fumiko Orikasa in Japanese and by Kari Wahlgren in English.

Story

Born Shelke Rui, she was abducted at age nine and taken to Deepground where she was subjected to numerous experiments. The procedures left her stunted, permanently appearing as a young girl. She requires daily treatments of mako to sustain herself.

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. She carries a pair of electromagnetic sabers, which resemble orange lightsabers.

She fights two battles with Vincent Valentine and afterward is sedated. When Azul the Cerulean escapes his holding cell within the WRO headquarters, Shelke is targeted for termination, as she no longer served a purpose to the Tsviets. She survived thanks to her sister, Shalua Rui, who held the monstrous Azul at bay long enough for Shelke, Vincent and Reeve Tuesti to escape. The sacrifice left Shalua in an eternal coma.

Shelke had previously absorbed some of Lucrecia Crescent's work and data into her mind to study it. However, this has an unforeseen effect, as it allows Shelke to experience Lucrecia's memories and to feel what she would have felt. These feelings compel her to help Vincent, although she never admits to this. They also allow Shelke to begin to regain her own emotions as well as gain an emotional attachment to Vincent, but that is supposedly only due to the result of absorbing part of Lucrecia's consciousness.

On board the Shera, Shelke performs another SND. She uses the information she gathers from the network to aid in Vincent's infiltration of Midgar. While Vincent enters Midgar, Shelke starts to look around the Shera. Inside the engine room, she finds her former comrade Nero the Sable and is captured by his dark powers. She survives by using a shield materia and is rescued by Vincent before her power runs out.

After the events of the game, Shelke lives with the others at 7th Heaven, although it is not revealed what she does now having left Deepground. When the party wants to get Vincent out of the Crystal Cave, they send Shelke, now wearing ordinary clothes, to get him. Seeing Lucrecia in Shelke, Vincent smiles as both of them look at what appears to be remains of Omega in the sky.