Disclaimer: I do not make any legal claim to any character or setting described within this or any fanwork I create. These are the property of SquareEnix.

Age 17: Icicle Inn

"Why!" The angry demand was yelled at Veld again within the confines of the small cottage. Though he normally would have no trouble dealing with a person yelling all manners of things at him, especially with the things he'd experienced working for ShinRa, the old man was having an incredibly hard time meeting the furious gaze of his only daughter. Elena had seemed to grow up overnight from an innocent young girl to a strikingly beautiful woman who looked the striking image of her mother.

The only difference was in her eyes. Whereas Amara had very kind and gentle blue eyes, Elena's were the same light brown color as his and currently reflecting a lifetime of deep bitterness and pain.

"Elena, you know that I can't visit you that often--"

"No, Dad," the angry teenager cut in rudely, her hands on her hips. "In order to say that, you have to have some recent history of visiting me at all!"

"Now Elena, I've visited--"

"Nine months!" the girl shouted again. "Nine months since the last time I saw you. You promised me last time you'd visit more often, and instead you do the exact opposite!" Her foot met the floor and the sound of the heel of her boots seemed to echo off the walls. "What is wrong with you! Why is it impossible for you to keep your promises! Do you even care about what happens to me!"

Veld's eyes became pained, but he tried to keep a rein on his emotions. "Of course I care about you, Ele--"

"Then why don't you show it!" Bitter tears were beginning to whell up in Elena's eyes, but she dared not let them fall yet. "All my life I've had to tell my friends and everyone I've ever known that I'm an orphan, that both my parents died when I was a little girl. And you know what's really sick is when I've told that lie so many times I almost start to believe it myself."

The old man was at a complete loss for words, really. He loved his daughter very much and seeing her in this much pain cut him straight to the quick. He tried to figure out what to say, but every time he opened his mouth his words seemed to die in his throat.

Elena obviously misinterpreted this inability to speak for something more negative. She shook her head, a look of grief written all over her face as she took a few steps backwards away from him. "I can't stand it. I just can't anymore!" She bowed her head and tears began to finally fall from her eyes. "Sometimes I really wish I was dead instead of alone in this place. At least if I was, I know I'd be with people who I knew loved and cared about me!"

More than anything else she'd yelled at him this night, those words in particular were like a dagger to Veld's heart. "But Elena... I do--"

"Just go," the girl whispered softly, a faint tremble running through her body as she tried to keep from breaking down completely in front of the man who was little more than a stranger to her, as far as she was concerned. "Please, just leave like you always do and don't come back..."

"Elena..." Veld reached out to try and place his hand on the girl's shoulder, but she viciously slapped it away, finally staring him straight in the eyes with a tear-filled glare.

"No! As far as I'm concerned, as long as you wear that suit I don't have a father! As long as you're a Turk, you and I are strangers and I never want to see you again!"

Not waiting to see if her father had anything else to say in his defense, Elena whirled about and ran up the stairs and into her room, slamming the door with enough force to rattle the picture frames on the walls.

It was several hours later when Elena finally woke up. She rubbed her eyes and winced at her sore throat. The girl had literally cried herself to sleep there curled up on her bed and by the time she'd woken up the sun had already set. The strange thing was, the light from her lamp within the room was on and she knew she didn't turn it on earlier.

"Daddy?" Her voice was soft and small as she looked around. Any anger and frustration she may have had earlier had bled away with her tears so that only a painful ache remained in the middle of her chest.

Quietly, Elena stepped out of her room and noticed that the house was quite comfortably warm for the middle of the night in the eternally winterbound Icicle Inn. She stepped down the stairs and peered over the banister tenatively. "Daddy?" she called again as she reached the first floor. The fireplace had a blazing fire, and looked like it had been burning for hours. The scent of a premade dinner could also be detected from the oven in the kitchen, but for all the signs of life, there was no sign of anyone within the house. As a weight settled into Elena's heart, she went to the front doors and opened it up, a sensation of dread at what she knew she would find.

It was just as Elena feared. The chocobo Veld had used to ride up to Icicle Inn from the coast was gone and had been for several hours, if the way the newfallen snow had covered its tracks were any indication.

Though she would've thought she'd run all out of tears earlier, Elena found herself crying again as she sank to her knees while sliding weakly against the doorframe.

"Daddy... I'm sorry, Daddy. Please come back. Don't leave me alone again... Please..."