"You knew I was following. You let your guard down for nearly an hour and then you tell me I have a clean shot? You sure you're Veld or am I following his idiotic ghost?"

"Nice to see you too. Oh, and you shouldn't have put your gun down quite so soon. I am me, and as such I am far too armed for a normal person."

Hello, son.

I don't ask. I want to say I warned him for all that has and will befall him. We stand in guarded positions like territorial dogs. I'm in his turf now, he's the alpha. Only this is stiffened by formality when I should be proud that he'd managed to track me, despite wanting to be found.

"I... you... where have you been all these years?" It's a question that he doesn't want the answer to. I can see it in his face.

"Where is your team? Hiding in the bushes?" I wonder briefly if they'll reinstate my warrant, because I taught Tseng well enough to follow that protocol. I wasn't the first man to come back from the dead.

"We're... not quite altogether for the moment. Elena and I were separated, and... well, there might not be a Shinra to go back to." A little blonde head peaks out from a building, and for a moment I think it's Anna, but I saw Anna die. And this one's eyes are brown, not blue. Just a doppelganger.

"Can I come out now?" she says and Tseng half smiles. Oh, so this must be his rookie. I'm glad he finally found someone to look after, someone to follow him around for a change. It's the order, the cycle of things. Apprentice and master. No entanglements, hopefully, but often there are. It's easier to tell a person to unattach than it is to unattach yourself.

Another girl that doesn't look like she fits into this world of guns and corporate intrigue. Or wait; is that how it's going to be?

"Elena, this is my old friend Veld, former head of the Manufacturing Research Department." I got accustomed to the Wutain greeting as it involves no contact. That, and in the history books, I found it to be the most worthy culture of a displaced man such as myself.

Elena responds in kind. Tseng is a good mentor, I think. I can see the age in him; it has relaxed and hardened him. It's in the glint of his eyes and the way he keeps his hair now. I think he finally grew up.

"It's nice to meet you, Elena." She's a little nervous, but the whole effect of the age we are faced with has kept her battle ready. I'm confident she could draw that standard issue handgun from her side with ease and practiced accuracy. She is Tseng's protégé... I would accept nothing less from her.

The pleasantries were over now. Tseng straightens his posture and Elena glances over and does the same. There are going to be talks of business, and I'm not sure I want to be a part of them. I didn't leave out of desperation; I am very much done with Shinra. I will be very much done with Shinra until the day I die.

"We... we are looking for the President." I knew that was coming. I had hoped it wasn't but he was the one that had taught Tseng about duty. Loyalty. Even if a time ago... it had been in question. But this was Tseng, all grown up and no illusions to where the power lay. Maybe he held a weakness for the brat king, but I doubt that.

"Then I wish you luck. I must be going then." Elena gives him a confused look, and to his credit, he still stays professional about it. Life isn't fair, kid, but you have no idea how glad I am to see you alive. To see you fully grown up. Whatever fool parents abandoned you are hopefully rotting in hell.

"You can help us, you know."

No, I can't. You weren't in that room, kid. You also don't know some of the things I know. Theoretically I am supposed to be dead. I was shot even.

But you weren't there, kid. I'm glad you weren't.

I still don't know what started the chain of events... most likely something I said, something I indicated. I was slowly growing a conscience, and I think that Shinra knew it; I could see it in the shade of his smirk, the look in his eye. I was going to be replaced even before my due, and I knew it.

And so came the day he called me on it. Funny thing about that day, it being the anniversary of one of Shinra's debacles. It wasn't a big one either... just a Turk gone missing and a scientist dying from an experiment. But it troubled me, how it all got hushed so quickly. Hojo certainly seemed different afterwards. We were hardly friends, but sometimes he'd tell me a couple of fun Wutain tidbits and I would share an odd article or two.

But there was something... haunted, fanatical about him. Something had gone more wrong than a dead scientist and a missing Turk.

"So, Dragoon, how are things in your department." Shinra always strode into my office without warning, but he owned the place, it made sense. Never said I liked it, though. Damn weird and creepy.

"Good, sir. Many fine young Turks these days."

The look, that shadow of a mustache colored his smirk darkly, and I almost drew my gun. I was already an old man... there would be no honor or dignity to this. This wasn't Wutai; this wasn't even the little place of order in my brain. This was Shinra. And I had outlived my usage.

"How about you take it easy for a while... let someone else take over your job" forever "for a while. You look tired." I was tired. But that didn't mean I was useless. There were no more left from my original group... did they always cast off old veterans like ailing pets?

"Sir, I would like to respectfully disagree—"

"That's not a request, Dragoon. You're to clear out this office by tomorrow."

I could have killed him, there was nobody else left on the Turk floor, nobody to witness, I was armed, I could get a clean shot... but there was no honor there. And I would be damned if the very organization that made me was going to make me stoop to the level of a common criminal. I regretted every kill I ever made and didn't all the same. No difference between my twisted morality and duty.

"Veld!" Tseng's urgent voice brings me back out of memory. I almost go to guard position, but he simply caught me drifting off. Elena looks confused, but that calculating kind that comes with the less ignorant.

"You can look for him fine and well on your own. I'm not a Turk anymore, kid. Not my duty, it's yours. I won't stand in your way, though." I want to, because I can't believe it in anymore and I can't be in your world or anyone else that would matter.

Rufus, a little brat of a kid, I always thought, sneering at me. It took them two months to track me down, because I wouldn't take the little shit job they offered while I "took a break." They'd sent my own kids after me, though, considering how long they took there was some breaking of orders.

You weren't there either, Tseng.

So how did I live? Considering I was cornered by the Prince of Shinra himself? Well, I never believed in miracles until then, but one did happen...

Turns out the kid aimed just a little off. I was dead for a minute or so, just enough time for him to check me and take off; leaving me like the trash he most likely thought I was. I didn't see a light, I didn't see a darkness... it was just... nothing. And then I heard a voice.

"Wake up."

I blink, and I realize Elena was talking to me. She looks at me angrily, and I'm at a loss. I'm just a silly old man who forgets what day it is sometimes and nearly has a heart attack when someone brushes up against him. I'm not worth your anger, kid.

"You're... some legend."

"Elena!"

It's strange, what the years can do. The people you meet, the situations you are in. Maybe I've been a little cowardly lately; maybe I've forgotten my reasons, maybe... I've been brooding for nothing.

Maybe... maybe I have to go and find a reason.

"Let her be. She's a smart kid, Tseng, you did good." He did good. I have yet to do good, and well, I guess it was time to get my due.

I just wonder how pissed off he's going to be.