Disclaimer: I don't own FF7, I'm not that cool.
This will probably be the last, if not, second last chapter to loosely follow the original story line, after that, we'll see what happens, but I hope you guys enjoy it anyway.
Cloud and Aeris had left Seventh Heaven after Cloud had made sure everything was locked and that Marlene would be ok while she was alone. He wasn't sure when the others were coming back, and he also didn't know if he was coming back here at all.
"So, where are we headed to now then?" Aeris asked.
"There's a big intersection in this sector. It leads to here, and two other sectors, oh and the pillar."
Cloud had figured by now, the Shin-Ra were planning something against Avalanche. The President wasn't one to get his reactors blown up and then let the perpetrators escape without any kind of revenge what so ever. It was entirely possible that something had already happened to them, and if not, something probably would in the near future. That, Cloud was sure of. Maybe that was the reason why he wanted to find everyone so badly.
If only he hadn't agreed on taking those missions for Tifa, then he wouldn't be stuck worrying about some people he hardly knew...'Then again...' he thought, 'If I had never agreed, I wouldn't have met Aeris.' Cloud slowly tilted his head to the left to look at her. Before her, he had never really had any female friends, besides Tifa. But that was when he was little. Now, he never hung out with girls...let alone people in general. He wasn't really the smoothest person in the world to talk to when women first talked to him. But, he found it so easy to communicate with Aeris. Maybe because he wasn't scared of trying to impress her...although sometimes he felt like he should be for some reason.
Cloud heard Aeris let out a small sigh beside him, making all the thoughts running around in his head go away.
"What's wrong?" he asked. Aeris turned to him a little surprised.
"Oh? Oh, nothing." she giggled, "It's just we've been walking for a while and none of us has really said anything."
'We have?' Cloud thought. He looked around. Now that he thought about it. They had been walking for quite a while. The road that lead to the bar was completely out of sight. They had already passed the three-way fork in the road, and come to think of it, Cloud realized that they were only about a five minute walk from where they were headed.
"Well, atleast we're almost there." He said.
"Are we?"
"Yeah, actually, I can see the intersection now." Cloud pointed ahead of them.
The two were then stopped dead in their tracks when a very loud noise could be heard off in the distance.
"Wh-what was that?" Aeris asked.
There was another crack in the air, and some screaming.
"A gun shot." Cloud said before taking off a few feet to get a closer look at what was goin on. Aeris was still a little stunned but followed close behind him.
Cloud stopped running as soon as he reached the intersection. "There are people up on the pillar...I think that's.." he squinted his eyes and looked up, "Barret. What they hell are they doing up there? With all those...wait who are they?"
"There are Turks up there. I can see them." Aeris answered.
Cloud turned to face her, a sudden shock of realization on his face, "I think they're going to knock down the pillar."
"What? Why!"
"Shin-Ra, they must have been looking for them. And instead of going through the trouble of looking around and asking, they're gonna save themselves some time and just take out the whole sector in payment for the two reactors we blew up."
Aeris didn't say anything, she just stood there with her mouth hung open.
"Aeris. I need you to do something." Cloud told her. She swallowed and nodded.
"Ok, I need you to run as fast as you can back to the bar. Take Marlene and bring her somwhere safe. Tell as many people to leave as you can while you're on your way, but you make sure that you and Marlene get out."
"Ok." Aeris obliged. She turned to take off, when she felt Cloud grip her arm. She turned, "There are Turks all over the sector. If they see you, they'll take you. I want you to keep a look our for yourself, hide if you have to."
"Don't worry, I will." she gave him a reassuring smile and took off in the other direction.
Cloud wasted no time and dashed off toward the pillar. A few people were still gathered around it, watching what was happening. Gunfire was still constantly being fired off. 'I have to get up there.' Cloud brushed past a few people and opened the fence that surrounded the pillar, but he stopped when he heard screaming and looked up. 'Oh no...' Someone was falling, and in an instant hit the ground with a sickening thud. Cloud immediately sped over to the young man who had fallen off the pillar. He quickly recognized him as Wedge.
"Wedge! Are you alright?" Cloud asked, panicked.
Wedge cracked open an eye and stifled a laugh, "Heh, you...remembered my name."
"Of course I did..."
Wedge laid his head on the ground and sighed shakily, "You better get up there..."
Cloud bit his lip. He knew he was right, but he didn't want to just leave Wedge there...
"I..know but..you?"
"Don't worry, just go man, I'll be ok."
Cloud nodded and picked himself up off the ground and bolted up the flight of stairs that led to the top of the pillar.
"If you would just cooperate with us we wouldn't have to hurt anyone else!"
"That's a lie an' you damn well know it!" Barret fired another round on his machine gun, successfully taking out two more guards that were trying to negotiate with him, although anyone could see that whether they surrendered or not the Shin-Ra would knock the pillar down anyway.
"Barret!" Cloud had reached the top of the pillar after some painful encounters with Jessie and Biggs. Three members of Avalance was enough casualties...he couldn't lose Barret and Tifa now. All that mattered now was getting themselves and as many people out of the sector as he could. Cloud knew Aeris had to be almost out by now. There wasn't anything that would stop her...except for the Turks, and it was clear they wanted her alive, so even if she hadn't made it out, they would have brought her out themselves.
"Cloud? Where'd you come from!" Barret looked shocked, and for a minute, actually forgot about the guards that were advancing on them.
"Cloud! You're alive!" Tifa ran towards him, overjoyed that he was alright.
"I-yeah! I'm fine!" he yelled over more of Barret's gunifre, "We have to get out of here! There'll be too many guards showing up! They're prepared for us, we have to go!"
Tifa nodded and ran over to Barret, "Come on! We gotta go!" she pleaded, tugging on his arm.
"Arg! No way! We can beat these guys! And we can't just let them destroy the whole sector!"
"Barret! There are thousands more Soldiers than there are Avalanche members! We can't win this one! Even if they kill us, they'll still knock down the pillar! We should get out of here while we can!"
Barret continued to fire at the three remaining guards on the tower who were beginning to circle him, but he was definately starting to agree with Tifa. "Oh, fine!" he said, after a few moments, "Let's get outta here!"
The three of them had began running toward the stairs of the tower when a loud noise could be heard. Approaching in the distance was a helicoptor...a Shin-Ra one no doubt. Someone had come to finish the job. They had to get out of there quick.
"Come on, we have to move fast!" Cloud ordered. Barret and Tifa rushed down the stairway ahead of him when Barret suddenly stopped, "Marlene! She's still at the bar!"
"No she's not!" Cloud called back to him.
"Whatdya mean she's not there?" Barret hollered.
"She's out of the sector and safe! What more do you want now let's go!"
Barret shook his head and mumbled something incoherent and started back down the stairs again.
:not too long ago:
Aeris ran as fast as she could. She turned back only for a moment to see Cloud making his way to the pillar. It was a good thing the bar wasn't far from where she was, she was sure she could remember the way without any problem too.
Aeris had made it to the familiar three way fork in the road where she saw some people walking around, giving her quizical looks, then she remembered what Cloud said, to try and get as many people out, "Hey!" She called to them, while still running, "Shin-Ra is going to knock the pillar down! Everyone get outta here!"
The people stood there, looking at the frantic girl disappear off into the next section of the sector before what she had told them really kicked in. The area was suddenly filled with screams and running people, trying to gather their things and get out as soon as possible.
Aeris' lungs were starting to burn and her legs were starting to get a little tired, but she couldn't stop for a break yet, not now. She couldn't be sure of how much time she had. All she was focused on was the poor innocent girl in the bar...and the rest of the sector who were all in danger. So she kept running.
After what seemed like an eternity, Aeris finally reached the small section of the sector that she had been waiting for. She stumbled up the wooden steps of the bar and banged on the door, and like before, no one answered. Aeris swallowed and caught her breath before banging on the door again, "Marlene!" she yelled, "It's me, Aeris, you...you have to open the door."
She closed her eyes and waited for a moment, 'Come on...just open the door...'
A sudden obvious noise caused Aeris to open her eyes and look toward the bar. There, standing before her was none other than Marlene, smiling at her. "Hi Aeris." she greeted happily.
"Marlene," Aeris bent down and placed her hands on the young girl's shoulders, "There's something wrong, and you have to trust me on this, but we have to leave now. We have to get out of the sector as fast as we can."
Marlene's expression tunred for joy to frightened, "W-what about my papa, and Tifa...and where did Cloud go?"
"I promise I'll tell you after we leave, but we really need to get out of here, please?"
Marlene nodded and Aeris sighed a breath of relief and grabbed onto the child's hand as they began to run away from the bar and through the panicing sector.
Aeris was beginning to sweat, they had been running for too long and she could feel Marlene tiring quickly as she struggled to keep up, not letting go of her hand.
"We're almost there Marlene, don't...worry, we'll be out of here in no time." Aeris said, out of breath as she took a quick right at one of the intersections.
There. She could see it now, the playground she had been in with Cloud no less than a few hours ago. Aeris slowed down a tiny bit as the exit to Sector 7 became closer. Oh how she was relieved that they would be safe. There was no doubt in her mind that the sector would be going down. She knew, and she knew Cloud knew that this was a planned attack, and a few members of Avalanche were definately not enough to stop the whole army of Solders.
"Ok..." Aeris stopped running and took in a huge breath once they had entered the playground, "We're safe now..."
Marlene had both hands on her knees and was taking in air frantically, "Aeris...will you tell me...what happened...now?" She choked out in between breaths.
Aeris made eye contact with her and nodded, but froze when she heard something...a voice. She didn't know who it belonged to, but something Cloud had said made her uneasy. right now, there was chaos...everybody was in a panic...now would be a prefect time for the Turks to get her. Without thinking, Aeris grabbed Marlene's hand and pulled her under the safety of an old slide so no one could see them.
"Hey!" Marlene protested, "What was that for?" she was stopped by Aeris placing a hand over her mouth.
"Marlene...I just realized...there might be dangerous people around...and I don't want us to get caught so we have to be quiet and stay hidden until we get to my house ok?" she whispered. Marlene nodded as they both heard the voice get closer.
Aeris prayed it was just some random person making their way from Wall Market so they could get out of there...but as footsteps approached, she knew she was wrong.
"She better be here this time! Or the boss is gonna kill me!" came the unmistakable voice of none other than Reno.
"She's not in Sector 7 or the church Sir, she must be back home." one of the Soldiers replied.
"Yeah, she better be..."
Aeris shuffled around quietly and pressed her eye to a small crack in the slide and watched as Reno walked out of the play ground and headed to her house. After seeing him fully disappear, she turned to Marlene, "Ok we have to follow them...but very quietly ok?"
"O-ok..." Marlene agreed as they crawled our form under the play structure.
"Ok now, we have to go very slowly...and stay behind all the rubble, so they can't see us." Aeris instructed, dusting off her dress.
"So, what if she ain't here?"
"Then..." Reno gritted his teeth, "I'll be very upset."
Aeris swallowed at Reno's comment. She and Marlene were currently about fifty feet away from the Turk and his guards, hiding behind a large pile of rubble that looked like it used to be a wall of some sort. She hoped that when Reno didn't find her in her house that he wouldn't do anything to her mother...
After Aeris watched Reno walk into the small area where her house was, she quietly led Marlene out from behind the broken down wall and slowly crept up after them. Although she knew they had no reason to come back this way, and they were being very quiet, she couldn't help but start to sweat and her heart was racing. If they caught her that would be it, and who knows what they'd do with Marlene.
Aeris gripped Marlene's hand tightly as they tip toed as silently over the gravel as they could, trying not to make a sound. After they had passed through the last wall and into Aeris' property, the two quickly ducked behind the nearest bush. Aeris decided they would wait there until Reno came back. She could still hear his voice, but it was getting more distant as he neared her house...
Elmyra had been running around the house non-stop all morning, busying herself by cleaning the house, which was already spotless. She had just done it too keep her mind off Aeris, like she did everyday. Elmyra hated when she left the house to go sell flowers. Sure, today Cloud was with her, but she knew Aeris had just been walking him back to his friend's place and then she would be on her way. It was much too dangerous for a young woman to be roaming around the slums all alone! Especially one with Turks following her everywhere.
Elmyra sighed and continued washing up the rest of her lunch dishes. She had just finished drying off her hands when she heard a sudden knock at the door. 'Who would be wandering over here?'
She dropped her cloth on the counter and removed her apron and headed toward the front door. Without even checking who it was, Elmyra opened the door and gasped.
"Good day ma'am." Reno greeted her as he leant up against the doorframe.
Elmyra inhaled deeply, but kept her cool, "What would you like...Reno? Is it?"
Reno looked down and scratched the top of his nose and sighed. He then looked up to face Elmyra and smirked, "I think you know what I'm here for."
Elmyra crossed her arms and looked at him, "If you're here for Aeris she's not here. Dont go looking for her either! What do you want with her? She's never done anything to you!"
"Sorry, that would be confidential Shin-Ra business, and as for if she's here or not, I'll have to see for myself." Reno remarked, easily brushing past Elmyra and into the house.
"Hey! Get out of my house!" she demanded, but neither Reno or the guards listened.
"Listen lady, if you just let me take her then you won't have to worry about us bothering you ever again."
Elmyra put on a disgusted face, "Yeah, right, like I'm just going to hand my own daughter over to Shin-Ra! And she's isn't even here! I don't know where she is!"
Reno chuckled and walked over to the stairs, "It wouldn't be wise of you to lie to me you know."
Elmyra turned her head in confusion, "I'm not lying, I told you I don't know where she is."
"No no, not about that, " he shook his head, "I mean, don't try and convince me that she's your daughter."
"H-how do you?"
"Please, if she really was your daughter, we wouldn't be looking for her in the first place." Reno answered and ran up the stairs.
Aeris and Marlene had been waiting in the same bush for a good ten minutes. Aeris was shaking and still breathing heavily. She continuously fiddled with her hands to try and occupy herself or something, but she couldn't help but worry about her mother. Reno had come to the house only once since he had been after her and he hadn't even been particularily rude to Elmyra or anything...but that was a long time ago and no doubt he was fed up with looking for her. Who knows what he'd do now.
"I'm going to ask you one last time. Where is she?" Reno threatened, advancing in on Elmyra who was seated at the kitchen table.
She bit her lip and looked sternly at the Turk, "I told you. I don't know."
Reno looked up at the ceiling and shook his head in frustration, "So. You're telling me..that she leaves every single day and doesn't tell you where she's headed? Is that what you're saying?"
"Yes. Except she used to tell me if she was going to the church, but apparently you know about that too, so other than that, I have no idea where she is. And it's for this reason that she never tells me! So I have nothing to tell you!"
Reno placed and hand in his pocket and shifted his weight onto one leg and thought, "Hmmm, I'll believe that." he laughed, "Your pain in the ass "daughter" has avoided me this long, she wouldn't be stupid enough to tell anyone where she is now would she?"
"Exactly. Now would you please do me a favor and get out of my house?"
"Yeah yeah, I'm going, but if I have to come back her again, I won't be so uh..."polite" next time." Reno gave her a wink and slammed the door shut.
Elmyra tilted her head bak in her chair and sighed with relief. 'Good god, what exactly has that girl done to get herself into this...maybe it would be better if we left Midgar..."
"Sir?"
"Sir?"
"What!"
"Maybe...maybe the girl is over in the-" "She's not ANYWHERE! We've checked every single fucking sector and the church twice today! This is pissing me off! I swear, I don't care what the President says, the next time I see her and she tries to run, I'll take her down. Come on. We have to move faster, we gotta get to the pillar and take that thing out already."
Marlene ducked as deep into the leaves as possible while Reno and his guards sped by them. Aeris did the same and held on to Marlene as tight as she could. For the first time, she was actually very afraid of Reno. She had pushed him ot the edge and he wasn't going to go easy on her anymore. 'Oh, I wish Cloud was here, to help me again...wait, why do I need him here? I've fended for myself all these years right? Why do I need him now?' Aeris questioned herself. It was strange how she felt so much more secure and safe with him, but it wasn't fair to want him to protect her all the time. She was interupted by Marlene tugging on her dress.
"Aeris," she whispered, "Can we go now? They're gone."
Aeris smiled and nodded. She could tell Marlene was still quite frightened. After all the had just avoided the Turks, and fled all of Sector 7 because it was soon to come crashing down. She needed to get the poor child into her house soon.
"Come on Marlene." Aeris placed her own hand in hers and helped her stand up. Even though the Turks were now gone, they both felt more comfortable sprinting the rest of the way to Aeris' house.
"Mom!" Aeris yelled as she opened the door and let her and Marlene in. Within seconds, Elmyra was bounding down the stairs and ran up to Aeris and engulfed her in a huge hug. "Oh my god! I'm so glad you're alright! Aeris I think you've really pissed that guy off this time."
"Yeah, no kidding." she muffled, slightly out of breath from the tight hug her mother had her in.
Marlene had still been standing in the entrance, she felt kind of akward right now, so she kept her hands behind her back and stayed silent. It was when Elmyra finally pulled away from Aeris and looked just behind her, "Oh! Who's this?" She said excitedly, brushing past Aeris without a second thought.
Aeris turned around and placed her hands on her hips, "That's Marlene, she's one of Cloud's friend's daughter. I brought her here because-oh! I almost forgot!" Aeris suddenly realized why indeed she had brought Marlene all the way here. "Mom, they're planning to knock down the pillar to Sector 7!"
Emlyra looked at her, shocked, "W-what! You mean Avalanche?"
Aeris shook her head, "No! Mom? What? Come on? Shin-Ra!"
"Oh. Oh! But why?"
Aeris clasped her hands together and took a seat at the table, this day had been too much for her already, "...They wanted to get back at Avanlanche."
Elmyra looked at her and frowned, "I thought so," she headed towards the table and sat with Aeris, "I knew blowing up Shin-Ra reactors wouldn't be a good idea." she half chuckled.
"Yeah... no kidding." Aeris agreed, motioning for Marlene to come sit with them. Marlene looked a little hesitant, and still a little sad, after all she didn't know where her father was, but she went over to Aeris anyway and hopped up on her lap.
"So, I take it Cloud is over there trying to stop the pillar from falling?" Elmyra assumed.
"I think he's just trying to get Avalanche out of there..."
"So, you don't know if he's coming back?"
"Well," Aeris shifted in her seat, "He was the one who told me to bring Marlene somwhere safe, so if he's alright, he should show up here eventually. He better be alright..."
The sound of the helicopor could now be heard throughout the whole area of the Sector.
"Hey! Where the hell are you takin' us!" Barret yelled, out of breath to Cloud, who was running in front of them leading the way.
"Sector 5. I think Marlene is there."
"How would she get there?" Tifa asked.
"Aeris."
"Who?"
"Just, someone! Don't worry about it! Keep running, the helicoptor has almost landed!"
"Did you get her this time"
"...No. Couldn't find her anywhere."
"Reno, you're excessive failure is quite upsetting. How hard is it to nab one girl."
Reno clenched a fist and held his phone away from himself for a moment before answering, letting his temper die down, "Apparently, Sir, harder than I expected."
"One more chance Reno. One more. Take out the sector and get back to Headquarters."
Reno heard the phone hang up on the other end. He took his own phone away from his ear and flicked it shut. "Fuck." he muttered under his breath and buried his hands in his hair, letting his elbows rest on his knees.
"Sir?"
Reno looked up quickly.
"We're here."
"Good," he stood up, "Let's put a stop to Avalanche, they won't be getting in our way again."
The helicoptor landed on the top of the pillar. Reno ducked his head and stepped out. Gunfire could be head all around the tower, but he decided to ignore it. He stepped down the stairs of the coptor and casually walked over to a large panel in the center of the pillar. reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small card and inserted it into the panel, then typed in a few numbers until the panel screen said "Time?" 'Hmmm...how long...let's see, we'll go for 3 minutes, we should be able to get outta here by then.' Reno smirked and set the timer for three minutes. After he was done, he removed his card and jogged back to the helicoptor.
"Let's go! Quick, we gotta get outta here in 3!" He called to the pilot.
"Roger Sir."
"Cloud...how..much further?" Tifa gasped.
"Not far, just another minute...I can just barely see the entrance..."
"We better be outta here on time or I'm gonna kick your skinny ass from here to the moon!"
Cloud turned his head to see Barret running behind him and smirked, "Oh yeah, you gonna kick my ass when we're dead?"
"You're damn right I will."
"Ha, well don't worry about it, cause there's the exit." Cloud pointed just in front of them.
"How much more time do we have Sir?"
Reno glanced at his watch and looked up, "Bout' 50 seconds."
"Sir, should we really have blown up the entire sector? I mean we had reports that three out of the six members of Avalanche had already been terminated. Was it really necessary?" one Soldier asked.
Reno glared at him, "Are you questioning the President's order Soldier?"
"I-no Sir I was just wondering-"
"Good, then leave it at that and keep your mouth shut."
"So..." Barret panted, "We in the clear...or what?"
The small group had made it into the playground that Cloud was in earlier that day. and had been able to take a rest, when Cloud thought of something, "That's a pretty big entrance...shit."
"What?" Tifa asked. We're out of the sector.
"Yeah...but...there's gonna be a hell of a lot of debris coming through that hole, we have to get out of here too!"
Cloud grabbed onto Tifa and Barret's arms and dragged them out of the area and fast as he could, fortunately for them, they made it out of the play ground just in time, as the bomb on the pillar suddenly set off and crumbled the pillar, taking the plate with it. The whole sector had undoubtedly turned to rubble and pieces of cement and metal were hurled through the entrance to Sector 5. The three Avalanche members had to throw themselves to the ground to avoid being hit by anything.
When it was all over, Cloud stood up first and dusted himself off. "Whew...that was fucking close..."
Barret was next to stand up and looked around, "Damn, that was lucky...but...Biggs, Wedge, Jessie...all of em' dead, cause of me." he dropped his head.
Tifa got up and alked over to Barret and placed a hand on his shoulder, "...Barret, it's not your fault. don't worry. It's Shin-Ra's fault. But...I think we need to get out of here...Marlene is waiting for you."
Barret looked up, "Marlene...she better be okay. Lead the way Cloud."
Cloud nodded and headed off towards Aeris' house.
"Aeris...I miss Papa."
Aeris looked down at Marlene who was sitting on her couch, "Oh, Marlene, I'm sure he's fine." Oh how she hoped what she was saying was true, she'd hate to see what would happen to Marlene if he never came back. Hell, what if Cloud never came back? Sure she'd only known him for a total of two days, but Aeris already felt like she'd known him for her whole life.
Aeris climbed up on the couch with Marlene, they had been down in the basement the whole time. Just sitting and talking. They were, however, interupted by Elmyra who called to them from upstairs.
"Aeris! Marlene! Come up here!"
Marlene's head shot up immediately and looked at Aeris with an anxious expression on her face before bolting off the couch and up the stairs as fast as her little legs could carry her.
"Papa!" she scremed while running into Barret's arms.
"Marlene! I'm so glad you're okay! Sorry I left you in the bar, I didn't know what was gonna happen!"
"Papa it's ok, you didn't know." Marlene cuddled her head into his shoulder.
Barret, Tifa and Cloud had walked a good fifteen minutes nice and slowly to Aeris' house, they were all wiped out from the run and it was almost 5 O'clock by the time they had arrived. Elmyra had let them in and called Marlene up immediately.
Aeris was now just emerging from the basement as she saw Marlene hop from Barret's arms and into a nearby woman's. Someone whom she hadn't seen, but she guessed it was Tifa. She walked in quietly, not wanting to disturb the reunion, but Cloud had noticed her.
"Aeris!" he walked quickly toward her and without hesitation, wrapped his arms around her. Aeris, who was quite surprised, and could see that Barret, and more so, Tifa were as well, but she graciously hugged him back. "Thank you." he whispered into her neck, "Without you, Marlene would have been gone."
"I-your welcome." she blushed. Cloud pulled away from her and held her by the shoulders and glanced back at Barret, "Barret, this is Aeris." he let his arms drop.
Barret smiled and walked through the kitchen and put a hand out, Aeris looked at his hand and shook it with her own, "Nice to meet you." she smiled politely.
"Thank you. Thank you so much for savin' Marlene. I owe you a lot. You ever need anything, want someone's ass kicked or somethin' I'll do it." Aeris giggled, she still felt akward though...she knew Tifa had her eye on her, and she knew just the reason why. So, she walked up to her and extended her hand, anything to break the tension, "You must be Tifa. Cloud told me about you."
Tifa looked taken back, back accepted Aeris' hand, "I-yeah, nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you to." 'Whew, good thing she doesn't hate me or anything.' Aeris thought.
"Uhh, sorry to break anything up but, I don't know about you guys, but I'm thinkin' we gotta kick some Shin-Ra ass to make them pay for what they did! You with me guys?" Barret spoke. Tifa nodded along with him in agreement. "Cloud? How bout' you?"
Cloud simply folded his arms and shook his head 'no'.
Barret stared at him in shock, "Whadya mean "no"! Look what those bastards did! Biggs, Wedge, Jessie and the rest of the sector! They didn't deserve that!" He yelled furiously.
"I know that Barret, but look why they did it. We blew up their fucking reactors." Cloud said coldly, "We go after them again, expecially with only three of us and we're all dead, and now that we've interacted with both Elmyra and Aeris, they could be in danger too if we pulled anything off. It would be different if Biggs and Wedge and Jessie were still alive, and captured or soemthing, but there's nothing we can do about it now. You can go if you want. But I'm not coming with you."
After a long few minutes of yelling and arguing, Aeris had suggested that everyone just stay the night, and head off to bed. Cloud happliy obliged and headed straight up the stairs and let himself into the spare bedroom. He'd figure out what he was going to do tomorrow, but for now, he needed some sleep.
A/N: And there you go, sorry that took WAY too long, but I really didn;t want to write the first half of this chapter, so that part moves kinda fast. Sooooo sorry about that, but now everyting is going to go in a different direction, hope you guys don't mind. And thanks SO much for the reviews, you guys are cool in my book! I hope to have the next chapter up soon. And I hope you guys don't throw crap at me for the lack of action in this fic, if that's what you were lookin' for go somewhere else! Or just stay, either one :)