Scars of the Past

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From the moment I met you I just knew you'd be mine - You touched my hand - And I knew that this was gonna be our time - I don't ever wanna lose this feeling - I don't wanna spend a moment apart - 'Cos you bring out the best in me - Like no-one else can do - That's why I'm by your side - And that's why I love you (Blue - Best In Me)

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Chapter 8 - The Temple of the Ancients

Reno was on Dachao Mountains, sat on the stone hand where Corneo gracefully fell to his death earlier that day. He smiled a little. How he enjoyed killing the pervert. He needed another excuse to eradicate the fat man, kidnapping Elena had been the last straw. Not that Shinra didn't want him for letting the secret about Sector Seven leak out. It was beyond him why they even told the fat bastard about it anyway. He opened his jacket and pulled out of an inside pocket the diary. He had been trying to build up courage, the whole three days they had been in Wutai, to read it. He raked a hand through his un kept red hair, staring at the little pink book. He took a deep breath and flicked to the last page that had been written on. He began to read it.

'Dear Diary,

It's been 3 years since I last wrote. Callum is now 3. He's the most adorable red head I've ever seen, like his dad. I keep having to make Elly look after Callum, whenever a big mission comes up, which I feel guilt about. She'll end up getting fired because of me and Reno. It's a good job she has Reeve to bail her out. I've been back at work for just over 2 years, and it feels like I never left. They're gonna kill me when they find out that I'm pregnant again.....

Yes, I'm pregnant again! I'm only 6 weeks gone so far. I blame it all on Reno. He always said he wanted a big family. I just hope it's a girl this time.

Oh well I'd better stop writing, I have a routine Reactor check to do that won't get done by just sitting here, no matter how much Reno says it will. He's sat at his desk playing 'throw Rude's coffee cup out the window because fat ass gave him overtime again'. I say he shouldn't draw pictures of Heidegger and throw darts at them, just as the fat ass himself walks into the room. Men never learn do they? So reactor 1 here I come.

Addy.'

Pregnant? He sighed shakily. She never told him that. He wondered what she'd been so happy about that day. Not even doing a regular, boring reactor check damped her mood. He would always remember the last time he ever saw her. He never said 'I love you.' He never got to tell her how much he cared about her. Reno hear a noise behind him. 'Elena.'

Elena looked at the red head. She hated it when he looked depressed, it just didn't suit his character. Someone like him wasn't meant to have shit like this happen to them. She moved to sit next to him. Reno looked at her, silent tears running down his face.

"Did you know she was pregnant again?" He managed to croak out. Elena looked at him in shock. He looked back over Wutai.

"Reno............... I dunno what to say."

"Makes two of us then." The two sat in silence for what seemed like eternity. The blonde Turk decided to have a go at cheering Reno up.

"You remember when you first starting going out with Addy and you went to meet her mother?"

"Aw gesh, I don't wanna remember that."

"She told me you walked into the house, saw Scarlet and said something like, 'Whoa, are you a whore or something?' Then she whacked you one, while Addy was stood there laughing." Elena smiled a little.

"I always wondered why Scarlet hated me so much but agreed to let me marry Addy. I mean you've seen how much she despises me" They sat in silence again for a while. Reno pulled one knee up to his chest and leant his arms on it. "I really wanna thank you Elly." The blonde gave his a puzzling look.

"Why?"

"Just for being my friend for the last six years. For helping me out and everything."

"There's no need to thank me, I like being your friend, it's not like you force me to, you know."

"I know, I just wanted to thank you in case anything happens during this whole thing."

"Nothing is going to happen Reno............."

"You know the last time somebody said that, I got into a nice little fight with our neighbourhood terrorists." Reno cut in.

"That won't happen every time someone says that."

"Ah, but that's just my bad luck all over."

"Promise me something will you?"

"What's that?"

"Don't read the entry when she first meets you."

"Why's that?"

"Just don't read it...... I'll see you later ok, I'll go and pull Rude from the bar." With that she walked back into Wutai. Reno sat there for a while looking at the book. He smiled a little and opened it up again. He found the entry Elena was talking about. 'Elly just said he was a jerk for hitting on us.' He laughed a little, shut the book and roamed down the mountain to have a drink with his two best friends.

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"Reeve, does the cat have the keystone yet?" Tseng asked while sat in the helicopter.

"Not yet, but it won't be too long. Cloud has just walked out his room so there's no one in there any more. I'm betting the keystone is in there somewhere." The voice from the Turk leader's PHS said.

"Hop to it then."

"That's a bad joke, you do know that Tseng."

"Yeah I'm the king of bad jokes. The worse they are, the more likely they are to make people laugh." Tseng heard a chuckle.

"Ok I've got the keystone. Cloud should really hide his stuff better."

"Well, meet me outside the Chocobo races. That's about the only place in the Gold Saucer I can get close enough in this copter."

"Will do." Tseng sat back in the chair. This was going so much easier than he had first thought.

"Shit" Or so he had thought.

"What's wrong Reeve?"

"Cloud has kind of spotted me."

"Well run then, try and lose him. I'll be there any minute ok."

"Just hurry will you."

The helicopter dove down the Chocobo Square, where Tseng saw out the window, the little grey cat on his white moogle, followed by the blonde haired man and the Ancient.

"Here the Keystone!" Cait Sith shouted before throwing it up to Tseng.

"Well done." The helicopter then flew away again. His PHS was still turned on so he listened to the conversation Cait was having.

"Hey!"

"W, wait a second. I won't run or hide. Yes, I was a spy. I was hired by the Shinra."
"...I trusted you. I can't believe you!"
"I couldn't help it. How 'bout if we continue like nothing ever happened?"
"No way, cat! You gotta lot of guts acting like a friend but being a spy!"
"Then what are you goin' to do? Kill me? You'd just be wastin' your time if you tried. This body's just a toy anyway. My real body's at Shinra Headquarters in Midgar. I'm controllin' this toy cat from there."
"So you're from the Shinra. Who? Who are you! Tell me!"
"Whoa, I can't tell you my name."
"We're not gettin' anywhere."
"See? I told you! Talking won't do any good, so can't we just continue our journey?"
"You think I'm jokin'!?"
"...Alright, yes, I am a Shinra employee. But we're not entirely enemies. ...Something bothers me. I think it's your way of life. You don't get paid. You don't get praised. Yet, you still risk your lives and continue on your journey. Seeing that makes me... It just makes me think about my life. I don't think I'd feel too good if things ended the way they are now."
".......And so on, and so on..."
"He'll never tell the truth. Once a spy, always a spy. We can't go on with someone like that. C'mon, get real!!"
"...just as I thought. Talking won't make a bit of difference. But I prepared something in case this happened. Why don't you listen to this?"

"Papa! Tifa!"
"Hey! That's Marlene!"

"Hey! It's the flower lady! Flower lady..."

"...So, you have to do as I say."
"...you're the lowest..."
"I didn't want to do this... using dirty tricks and taking hostages... But this is how it is... no compromises. So why don't we continue on as we did?"

Tseng shook his head. Reeve was just a too nice a guy for his own good sometimes. 'Oh well better get this over with.' The copter flew on to the Temple of the Ancients.

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The helicopter landed in a clearing right next to the old temple. Tseng and a blonde woman jumped out the door The Turk leader turned and began walking over the rickety rope bridge. He could have sworn he heard something in the woods behind him, but he was pushed for time so didn't bother to look. Probably just the odd monster lurking about.

"Are you sure this place is save?" The blonde asked.

"As safe as any other place in the world right now Elena." He turned to look at her. "Look, I'm sorry for calling all of you away from your vacation a bit early."

"It's ok. Wutai was getting boring anyway."

"You went there?" Tseng asked, pulling the keystone out of his pocket and placing it on the alter.

"Yeah, not much to do though." The black haired man chuckled.

"There never was. That's why I moved when I was old enough to." The keystone glowed and a secret lift opened up.

"Whoa, now that's neat." Elena spun around to look at the door. "I could have sworn I just heard something outside." Tseng looked as well.

"You're not the only one.... Come on lets get this over with." They entered the lift. When it came to a stop they found themselves a a maze like room. "Ah.... this just gets better." Every note of that sentence held sarcasm in it.

An hour later, filled with mostly silence, Elena speaking once in a while, they reached a room with writing all over the walls. She kept looking behind her. She had a really bad feeling that something or someone was following them. She looked to another alter type thing with a pyramid hologram hovering over it. Tseng was looking around. The blonde turned and ran up to him.

"Tseng, what's this? Can we find the Promised Land with this?" Tseng turned to look at her.

"...I wonder. Anyway, we have to report to the President." The blonde nodded and began to walk towards the door.

"Be careful Tseng"

"Yeah." He thought about something for a minute then spoke again. "Hey Elena, how 'bout dinner after this job's over?" The blonde Turk looked at him. She was a little bit shocked that he asked, even though she always wanted him to.

"Th... Thank you very much. If I may be excused..." She ran out the room. Tseng began looking at the walls again.

"Is this the Promised Land? No, it can't be..." The Turk heard another noise. He turned around to find a silver haired man kneeled on the floor, his sword held straight up in the air. "Sephiroth!!" The man stood up and looked at Tseng.

"So you opened the door. Well done." The Turk took a few steps towards the other man, thought again and stopped.

"This place...... What is it?"

"A lost treasure house of knowledge. The wisdom of the Ancients..." Sephiroth turned towards one of the walls, lifting his arms into the air. "I'm becoming one with the Planet." The Turk looked at him puzzled.

"One with the Planet?" Sephiroth let his arms fall back down to his sides. He turned his back to the black haired man.

"You stupid fools. You have never even thought about it. All the spirit energy of this Planet. All its wisdom... knowledge... I will meld with it all. I will become one with it... It will become one with me." Tseng looked even more puzzled than before.

".....You can do that?"

"The way........ lies here." The man began to laugh. "Only death awaits you all. But do not fear." Before Tseng could even move out of the way, Sephiroth rose his sword and slash the black haired man across his stomach. Tseng fell to the ground. Just before he thought he was going to lose consciousness, he heard Sephiroth mutter something.

"For it is through death that a new spirit energy is born. Soon, you will live again as a part of me." The man then flew off. The Turk managed to pull himself up, and staggered all the way to where the lift to the temple was. He took the keystone out when the lift stopped and slumped again the alter. 'This sucks' He was only there a few minutes before he saw three members of Avalanche stood in front of him. He missed the first bit of their conversation, he was in too much pain to think straight. He tried to stand up.

"Uh... I've been had." The Turk fell back down. "It's not the Promise Land.... Sephiroth's searching for..."

"Sephiroth? He's inside!?" He heard the blonde say. Tseng pointed towards the alter.

"Look... for yourself..." His hand fell again. "Damn... Letting Aeris go was the start... of my... bad luck... The President... was wrong..." He shut his eyes again. He didn't listen to what the Ancient said. He opened his eyes and listened to the last thing she whispered.

"Either way, there was no way Shinra could have won." Tseng nearly smiled despite the pain.

"...pretty harsh. Sounds like something... you'd say." He tried to get up again, succeeding this time. He walked over to Cloud and gave him the Keystone. "The Keystone... place it... on... the altar..." He dragged himself to a wall nearby and slumped against it. 'Sorry Elena, doesn't look like I can take you on that dinner I promised' He then let his eyes shut for the last time.

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The Turks were back at HQ, sat in Reeve Office. The black haired man was still looking over Cait. While looking at the screen, he saw Tseng slumped against the wall. 'Shit' He made the cat walk over to the man and look at him. 'This is not good....'

"Reno.... you'd better come here a minute." Reno looked up and walked to where Reeve was sat. He looked at the screen.

"Holy shit..... is he...." He muttered softly. The Shinra Executive nodded. Reno took a coffee cup that was lying on Reeve's desk and threw it against the wall. "This is just fucked up!" He shouted. The other two Turks looked at him. The red head raked a hand through his hair then wiped his face.

"What's wrong?" Elena asked in a timid voice. Reno let out a shaky sigh.

"Tseng he's.................... dead." He leaned against the wall and slid down it. Elena held a hand against her mouth and let out a single sob. Reno looked at her and stood up again. "Come here." Elena looked at him and rose out of her chair, shakily walked over to him. He put her arms round her and she sobbed into his shirt.

"He...... was.... going to....... take........ me........ to dinner." She managed to to get out into between sobs.

"You loved him didn't you?" Elena looked up at the red head.

"Kinda...... sorta." Reno hugged her a bit tighter. She put her head back on his chest, trying to make herself stop crying. She couldn't. She never got to tell Tseng how she felt and now he'd never know. It hurt like nothing else had hurt before.

"It'll be ok El, I promise it'll get better." She heard Reno whisper in her eye. She nodded. 'I know it will, because I have friends like you to help me'

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