Sociopath
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: Don't get mad...I'm just trying for original, Barret's really a nice guy, honest.
Sociopaths are renown for their ability to see others as objects instead of people. It's one of the most feared qualities in the human psyche. No sociopath can be rehabilitated.
Experts thought perhaps something was simply broken.
But perhaps it is simply an extreme narrowness of vision. Fanatics display the same qualities to those outside of their ordained "herd". Their minds are simply too small to process the others in any sense. The power bestowed by such a mindset destroys the goodness left in them. The ability to decide who is human.
Both conditions are permanent. Nothing will change them.
To some the terrorist attacks carried out by AVALANCHE were the works of sociopaths, of narrow minded fanatics. The wanton acts of destruction which claimed countless lives.
And while those lives may have worn a ShinRa uniform, how could one say many of them were any less human?
It was a question few of the original members of AVALANCHE asked.
Never once had it occurred to Barret there were other people behind those uniforms. The thought that he was creating more orphans like Marlene, that he was doing the exact same as ShinRa would never cross his mind.
He had good reasons to hate ShinRa. But the hate narrowed his mind, blocking out the validity of any reason to be attached to ShinRa. Like that there really wasn't much else to live on.
Barret did not have nightmares of those he killed. The uniform alone made them less than human in his mind. His mind could not allow for anything else.
His teammates trusted him in battle. Barret was fiercely attached to his own – they were people to him. But they were always careful to never stray too far from his ideals in his sight, for they knew that if any of them showed any sympathy or attachment to those who fought against them Barret would not understand. His was a policy of no mercy for mercy belonged only to human beings and not what he saw as objects.
AVALANCHE had started out little better than ShinRa. The team knew that. They breathed a quiet sigh of relief whenever Barret stalked away from the moments where he vied for dominance the loser. The general consensus was that Barret needed someone to moderate him; power would in the end destroy the good in him. His mind was too small to handle it.
They were glad Cloud's mind was too damaged to be corrupted.
The End