Cloud awoke at the children's playground. It was, for the most part, unscathed, with large bits of rubble littering its floor and every surface smoke damaged. It was nice that the children at least had something to cherish as they grew up in such an impoverished place, but then he thought of all the children of the Sector 7 slums. Most would be dead and some would be wandering around looking for their parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles and cousins. Dammit. Shinra would have to pay for this!

He looked around and brushed himself off. Tifa and Barret were lying semi-unconscious on the floor. Both seemed shaken but unscathed. They wearily got to their feet and looked around at their glum surroundings. Cloud noticed that Barret's eyes were full of tears. The beast of a man was someone who kept his sadness deep inside, but not this time.

"Marlene! MARLENE!" he cried, rushing to the piles of twisted metal behind the gate to Sector 7.

Marlene… she was only four. Even in her glum surroundings, the girl was full of vivacity. Had she survived? Cloud thought back to what Aeris said in the helicopter. She said she was safe. Did she mean Marlene?

"MAR-LE-NE!" Barret wailed. "Biggs! Wedge! Jessie!"

He ran back and forth, stopping in the centre of the pile of rubble and hitting his fists against it. His Gatling gun clanked off the surface, the sound of it ricocheting through the polluted air.

"Goddamn it!" he roared, his whole body shaking. "Dammit! DAMMIT ALL TO HELL!" He lowered his voice but it was still wrought with grief. "What the hell's it all for!?" He screamed into the rubble pile and wept.

"Hey, Barret!" Cloud called.

"Barret!" Tifa repeated.

Barret cried out again, his shoulders bobbing up and down as he sobbed. Cloud had never seen him like this before.

"Hey!" Cloud said as he and Tifa ran up to Barret.

"Barret, stop…" Tifa said, an air of gentleness in her voice. "Please stop, Barret."

Her words meant nothing to Barret. How could they? He'd lost his friends and he thought he'd lost his daughter too. He screamed out again before peppering the rubble pile with bullets.

"God damn…" he cried, falling to his knees.

There was nothing they could do for him yet. He was in shock and grieving for the loved ones that had been taken. Cloud and Tifa backed away and stood at the playground until he came round. He needed time to focus his thoughts. It was only right that they gave him that time.

He eventually skulked over to them, once standing tall and fierce, ready to take on anything, and now crumpled up into himself, his shoulders hunched as though he didn't want to let the world in.

"Marlene…"

"Barret…?" Tifa asked, getting his attention. "Marlene is… I think Marlene is safe."

He looked up. Cloud caught a flash of hope shining in Barret's eyes.

"Huh?"

"Right before they took Aeris, she said, 'Don't worry, she's all right.' She was probably talking about Marlene."

"R…really!?" Barret replied, optimistically.

"But…" Tifa continued.

"Biggs… Wedge… Jessie…" Barret finished.

"All three of them were in the pillar," Cloud announced.

"Think I don't know that?" Barret chided. "But… we, all of us fought together. I don't wanna think of them as dead!"

"And the other people in Sector 7," Tifa responded miserably.

"This is all screwed up!" Barret roared. "They destroyed an entire village just to get to us! They killed so many people…"

Tifa put her hands on her hips.

"Are you saying it's our fault?" she asked defensively. "Because AVALANCHE was here? Innocent people lost their lives because of us?"

"No, Tifa! That ain't it! Hell no! It ain't us! It's the damn Shinra! It's never been nobody but the Shinra!" Barret protested. "They're evil and destroyin' the planet just to build their power and line their own damn pockets with gold! If we don't get rid of them, they're gonna kill this planet! Our fight ain't never gonna be over until we get rid of them!"

"…I don't know," Tifa mumbled.

"What don't you know!?" Barret grumbled. "You don't believe me?"

"It's not that. I'm not sure about me… my feelings."

"An' what about you?" Barret asked, turning to Cloud.

But Cloud didn't respond. What exactly could he say that hadn't already been said? He turned around and exited the playground.

"Yo!" he could hear Barret yelling before he mentally zoned out. It was a coping mechanism for him. If you couldn't handle the pressure you were out of SOLDIER, no questions asked, so when he felt like things were getting too much he blocked it all out, giving his mind time to heal. Besides, he had his own problems to deal with let alone Barret's.

"Where's he think he's goin'?" asked Barret arrogantly.

Tifa pondered for a moment or two. He and Aeris had met before, hadn't they? As she recalled, they were sat on the slide and seemed to be engrossed in conversation when she rolled out of the gate on the Chocobo-carriage towards Don Corneo's mansion. Maybe he was going after her alone. She sighed. If Cloud wanted to do something that badly, he'd do it. He was in SOLDIER after all…

"Oh! Aeris!" she said out loud.

"Oh yeah, that girl. What's up with her?"

"I don't really know," Tifa replied, turning to him. "But she's the one I left Marlene with."

"Damn!" Barret cried. "Marlene!"

He ran to the mesh gate at the playground's entrance and then whipped around to face Tifa.

"Tifa. There ain't no turnin' back now."

She watched Barret exit the playground, gave one final look at the destruction all around her, and followed him.

To be continued…