The group looked on from their ship. Cait Sith was muttering to himself.

"That was a surprise, the controls went crazy. This ain't good... Weapon came out of the sea and is heading straight for Midgar."

The Weapon, the Sapphire Weapon was a terrifying beast. It would take a lot to bring it down.

"The new weapon should stop him, right?" Cloud asked.

"I don't know if it's ready or not..." The cat answered.

"Hey! What's gonna happen to Marlene!?" Barret asked worriedly as he ran up to Cait and Cloud.

"Doncha worry none, Marlene's in a safe place. She's with Aerith's mama."

Barret scratched his forehead in uncertainty and turned away.

"Barret!" Cait closed the distance between them.

"What was that scratching just now!? As long as Marlene is safe, who cares what else happens, right?"

Barret eyed him coolly, and he continued.

"I been itchin' to say this to ya fer a while now! When ya blew the Midgar No. 1 up, how many folks d'ya think died?"

"...That was for the life of the planet. Ya gotta expect a few casualties."

To the former leader of AVALANCHE that may have been little more than a bonus, but the fact remained. Those reactors were killing the planet and they did have to be destroyed. One way or another.

"A few? Whaddya mean 'a few?' What may be a few to y'all is everything to them who died... Protect the planet. Hah! Y'all sure sound good! Ain't no one that'd go against ya. So ya think ya can do whatever y'all want?"

Barret sighed. These days, he tried not to let his temper get the better of him.

"You know what, we ain't got time for this shit right now. How bout we pick this up la-

"Oh, so ya think ya can just plug yer ears and say you forgot about it later, eh? Well, listen here-

"No, Goddamn it! YOU listen!"

He didn't always succeed.

"You think this was some fuckin' game for me? Huh? I was runnin' around feelin' myself an' cappin' fools an' shit!? I was fightin' a Goddamn war."

He took a breath and continued.

"A war where we were hopelessly, hilariously outgunned, not to mention out-manned. Six people, five 'til Cloud came along, against the people who run the entire fuckin' world! If I had a better option...

If I coulda marched right up to the top of Shinra fuckin' HQ and put a bullet between that fat shit cat's eyes, I'd have done it. But even with everybody, I wouldn't have made it past the first floor! Shit... it was a fuckin' miracle we made it outta that place, and there wasn't hardly nobody workin'!"

Cloud and Tifa eyed each other nervously. They thought of trying to talk Barret down but ultimately decided to let him say his piece.

"Thing is, I didn't have no better options. I had a mission. It was either those fucking vampire machines or this planet. An' yeah, okay, makin' those motherfuckers pay always came first, I ain't denyin' that.

But that don't change the fact that what we did needed to be done, and no else seemed to give a fuck, so it was up to us, up to me, to do it. An' yeah, there a lot of people that died because of me, an' there are a lot of people that get to judge me, but one of Shinra's bitches ain't one of 'em, and you ain't never gonna be."

* Think they'll start making "Barret was right" T-shirts? Heh.

Yeah, so I was inspired by the awesome "Cap's Response" and also by the argument between Jyn and Cassian in Rogue One.

I don't actually hate the character Cait Sith or the one who controls him. I just hate when a hero gets called out for things they did when they had little or no choice.

Honestly, if Earth had 100 years left, tops, and the only way to save it was to blow up a few power plants, even if a whole lot of people got blown up in the process, can one really say they wouldn't do the same? Or at least spare a little understanding for the ones who did?