Chapter 9 – Remembrance
"I have wasted so much time
Pushing you away from me,
I just never saw how you
Could cherish me."
Elena ran the brush through her hair and tied it up in a high ponytail, leaving the red streak at the front loose. She looked at herself in the mirror. She was wearing the same black dress as she did when she first went to the beach with the roses. Her eyes were outlined with black. She smiled and turned to leave. Her eye was caught by the photo on the coffee table. Reno…it felt like she was finally letting him go, letting him rest in peace.
Tseng had let her pick the place where they held the memorial. Naturally she had chosen the beach. As she approached the flowing white sands, her memory flooded back to about 3 years ago when her and her fellow Turks had come to this beach. Tseng had been in one of his rare, rebellious moods and decided they all needed a break for a couple of hours. She remembered how they laughed at Reno because he was so amazed by the whole thing. It turned out he had never been to a beach before. Elena brought him back there while the sun was setting. She would pay any amount of money to see the look on his face again. She would pay even more just to see Reno again.
She walked over the sand to the place where she had been leaving the red roses. Tseng, Rude and Tifa were already there.
"You still sure you wanna do this? It's not too late to back out." Tseng said, smiling kindly.
"I'm sure. I can do this. Who's coming?" she asked
"Rufus Shinra, a load of other people from Shinra, and Tifa of course. Only people who actually knew Reno though." He said.
She nodded. Looking around her she could see a lot of people had turned up.
"I think that's everybody. Go ahead." Tseng said. Elena cleared her throat.
"I think all of you know Reno, and I think most of you know what happened two years ago." She felt the tears sting her eyes as she thought about what she was going to say. "Just before that fateful mission, Reno was ill. During that illness, I discovered how much I really cared for him. When he went missing, it was the most heartbreaking thing that I have ever had to go through. It doesn't matter how much any of you care for Reno. Some of you may feel the same as me, some of you ay be glad that he's gone. It doesn't matter. We are all here for the same reason. To say good-bye for the last time."
Elena looked up. Tears were streaming down her face, but she didn't care. She looked at the people around her. Most of them were standing with their heads down, some were crying. But one person particularly caught Elena's eye. She had no idea who it was, but he did see some-what familiar. He was standing at the back of the crowd so she couldn't see much of him. He was tall and thin and dressed in black like everyone else, but he was holding himself in a way that an injured man would. He was wearing a hat that was tipped forwards so she couldn't quite see his face. He looked up at stared straight into Elena's eyes, though she still couldn't quite see his face. Seeing that he had caught her attention, he pulled his hair out of his jacket and pulled the hat off, a smirk on his face.
"Tseng? Please tell me I'm not seeing things." Elena said. Her voice was shaking. Tseng looked over to where the man was standing.
"What the…?"
