17

Barret's Past

We all huddled together inside the moving air tram to Gold Saucer. It was late afternoon, and stuffy. Fans along the walls were blowing gently, but they only threw in dry air from the desert. Lazily, the tram carried us across an expansive yellow ocean of sand, as far as the eye could see. The late sun tried to penetrate our tinted windows with its aggressive rays, the kind that could make you groggy if you stayed in sight for too long. I shifted carefully, making sure I wasn't under the sun's glare when I rested against Aerith, shoulder to shoulder.

We were all quiet, waiting with anticipation.

Red settled by Barret's feet, watchful of the troubled, one arm gunned man. Tifa held his hand. Yuffie crossed her legs and leaned in to hear easier over the whirling of the propellers. Cloud remained silent, arms crossed, but he held a steady stare on Barret, waiting patiently.

Barret settled himself and began to tap his fingers nervously across his army green pant leg. He rubbed his hands across his face with a long drag of sighing, uncomfortable diving back into his past.

"Four years ago, North Corel used to be just Corel, a small town. It was nothing much, but we got by mining the coal, living off it. A poor place, but it was home. Despite the living conditions coal brought to us, we still lived peacefully, until one day… The day I first heard the word, 'Mako Reactor'…" he narrated.

Barret sat in the living room of the Village Headman's home. It was a quaint little place, with a large enough living space to gather the six members of the town's council. The village head, an aging man with his voice so coarse, cleared his throat with every other breath. Every time he spoke, anyone could hear the horrid coal dust that destroyed his lungs.

"It seems we're all in agreement here, except for Dyne," the headman announced. He settled his white knuckled hands behind his arched back, and turned to eye the one everyone in the room feared.

The one called Dyne, sank his head, his short black stubby hair in between his olive green trousers, and sighed. The silence left everyone in anguish, even Barret as he sat next to the stubborned man. Dyne raised his head, glaring at no one in particular, and hammered his hand over the old couch's arm rest.

"Of course, I'm against it! Our fathers and grandfathers worked hard to build those coal mines. I don't want to throw all that away! And besides, this town makes money on coal! Without it, what will we thrive on? We'll slowly shut down!"

"But Dyne," a younger Barret tried to reason, "the use of coal is dropping. We'll lose money anyway, no? This is the sign of the coming times."

Back then, Barret easily held soft eyes, and he carried them on his best friend. He had both of his arms, and used them to fold across his powerful chest when he saw Dyne only shaking his head continuously.

Scarlet, her hair wrapped up in a high and elegant bun then, batted her droopy eyes to Dyne.

"It's all about Mako now. Sooner or later, coal will be of no use, and then your town will continue to expose itself to all of its toxins. Think of your health! Your value! With Mako, you will run your town without having to inhale another piece of coal again! And of course, the Shinra Company will guarantee your livelihood once the reactor is set in place. It won't even be noticeable, what with its location in Mt. Corel, away from your homes. It will be like nothing has changed," she preached easily.

Dyne gave Scarlet bullets with his heavy brown eyes, and held his tongue.

Barret sighed, and dropped his head to avoid looking at all the men in the room. He knew of their worries, stresses and health. He knew of the workload it did to all of them, and how many of them hated the idea of being away from home for days at a time, just to mine the god-damn coal. Away from their wives and their children.

Fucking coal.

Barret's eyes intensified when he lifted them to Dyne, watching the younger man's profile.

"Dyne, I don't want my wife to suffer anymore," he begged. Nothing would make Barret happier than to be staying at home with his wife, Myrna, and start making a family. He often left her all alone, and with her lungs so badly damaged, she could hardly walk the short distance from their hut to the well without feeling short of breath.

Dyne sympathized with Barret, and squeezed his white knuckles tightly.

"I know how you feel. It's the same for my family. But, I just hate the idea of simply throwing away our coal mines," he tried to reason. Even as young as Dyne was, maybe in his late twenties, he often coughed, and did so in front of everyone.

He coughed into his muscular arms, coal dust smeared across his cheeks from his forearm. Barret never understood why Dyne was so keen on following the town's heritage. Why, even when it was slowly making him sick, did the coal even matter? Was it all because of tradition? What is because he already knew the consequences of letting Shinra lay their filthier hands on an already filthy town? Or was he afraid to live without a job?

Dyne finally stopped hacking, and leaned back on the couch, relieved to be breathing again. His fingers fiddled with his locket, a small gold piece that hung around his neck, one similar to Luca's. Perhaps it was family tradition, to carry a locket with the initial to your first name on it. Dyne was thinking deeply while his locket rattled against a bullet he attached to a ring, and the trinket jingled loudly among the silence.

Scarlet grew inpatient, her hands on her hips while she held back harsh words.

The headman could sense her frustration, and stepped in to take over with a softer approach.

"I'm sorry, Dyne. I do value your opinion, but I'm going to have to go with everyone else," he muttered.

Instantly, Dyne rose, his fist tight around his locket like he wanted to pull it off his thick veined neck with so much force, but stopped short. He stared down at nothing, or maybe at the wooden coffee table, his upset eyes only deepening until he lifted them to the headman.

"You'll regret this!" he said through his teeth. The furious man twirled around to stare at the other half dozen men in the room, gazing at all of their dirty faces and listening in to their wheezed breathing. Lastly, he dropped his burning eyes to his best friend. Barret sucked in a quick breath at that look, a look of a man willing to stop at nothing, to keep the coal mines open.

"I thought you understood this place better than I did," Dyne hissed directly at Barret, and then he stormed out of the house, almost pushing aside Scarlet.

Barret stopped the story, and took a break to gather his breathing. His eyes were blinking nonstop while we all waited to hear more. He licked the desert air from his lips, and drew his hand across his forehead to wipe at the sweat that collected there.

He continued, "after that, the reactor was built. We thought, once it was done, we would all live a simpler life, but…"

A younger Barret rushed across the dry earth path, losing his breath along the climb. He pumped his arms, the wretched morning sun already beating down on his dark back, and the dust made him cough.

I hope I won't be too late

No one has seen Dyne show up for work that morning, and Barret instantly knew something was up when he spotted his familiar dark hair. Dyne's dark hair stuck out easily from the far away brown and orange hills, and Barret caught sight of him just before he disappeared around a bend, taking the trail towards the new reactor with a sack over his shoulders.

With powerful legs, they kicked Barret into high gear, edging him closer in the length of almost a full day with little breaks. By the time he got there, it was at the crack of dawn the next morning. Finally, he stopped at an edge of a cliff. Right below, Mt. Core's new Mako Reactor sizzled lively. It was nested inside a small manmade crater in one of the hills. To him, it looked like a bowl filled with metal, pipes, and green light emitting off its deep floor. What stood mightily in the center of that metal bowl, was the reactor chimney, a hissing structure that let out toxic green clouds through its vents. And right there, under that tower before its biohazard doors, was…

"Dyne!" Barret shouted, and started running again. He took the descending path in a spiral around the peak, hoping to get to the bottom in time.

But by the time he made it to the footbridge, Dyne was already standing there, his attention towards the reactor with a grenade in his hand.

Barret leaped forward, and shouted, "Dyne, don't!"

Dyne twisted around, the glowing green Mako fumes behind him to portray him as an enraged spirit, glaring at Barret with so much hate.

"I have to Barret!" Dyne screamed, his fingers tight around the grenade. Barret's eyes carefully followed the footbridge towards the reactor chimney, and saw piles of explosives sitting around it. He shook his head, feeling that every second mattered as he tried to close the distance between him and a trigger-happy Dyne.

He held out his hands peacefully, and stepped his boots closer.

"Dyne, please don't do this," he begged. "For Our health. Our families. Our future."

But Dyne threw his gloved hand down and scoffed.

"And let all of that fall into the hands of Shinra? They don't give a shit about us!" he screamed.

Barret's enormous heart sank. Naive at the time, he really knew nothing of Shinra. Was he willing to choose them over his childhood best friend? With no time to waste, Dyne hastily pulled the pin off his grenade with his teeth, and spat the metal piece close to Barret's feet.

"Go ahead. Stop me. Blow me up instead," Dyne urged, his eyes damp.

Barret's knees rubberized, until he fell them to the dry earth, counting down the seconds before the grenade went off.

Should he risk it? Run up to try to steal the grenade before it takes his best friend away? Do nothing and watch Dyne throw it into the reactor?

With deep regret, Barret ended up doing nothing.

Nothing but scream when Dyne mightily tossed the grenade towards the reactor's chimney. It bounced only once when the timer decided it was down to zero. A quarter of a second, there came a click. And then, a mighty explosion, followed by more of them, until it all became one massive column of heat and Mako up into the sky like a volcanic eruption.

Dyne watched it all with joy, letting the explosion reflect off his eyes until he smiled wildly, proud for what he did.

The heat became too much, the two men had to step back as they gazed at the fire show inside the crater. Heat glowed off their faces, wind from the fires flapping their clothes and Dyne's locket.

It jingled.

Barret would never forget that sound. Even now, when he hears anything similar, his thoughts would always go back to Dyne, like a bell from another time that still tolled in between his ears.

With discouragement, Barret looked up into Dyne's face, watching the orange glow enhance the hard lines of his sharp jaw. Flames covered Dyne's distant eyes, a man already with firestorms of his own deep inside him, as he frowned deeply at the reactor's fires. Could any man produce any more hate than Dyne did? Barret will later find the answer to that question as he got back to his feet, glaring at the man.

Not seeing it coming, Dyne's cheek was smashed by Barret's large and dark fist.

"You son of a bitch! Look at what you've done!" he cried angrily.

Dayne's face turned sharply by the blow, twisting his body with it until he took a few stumbling steps back. He froze, letting his eyes fall into the earth.

"This was supposed to keep me home! To stay with Myrna! I wanted to have the time to have a family! Not be in these fucking mountains, mining coal until I die of lung disease! You Bastard!" Barret growled through his teeth, tasting his tears.

He was ready to hit Dyne again, the man a statue. But just as he was about to throw another jab at him, a hard slam crunched up into the roof of his chin, pushing this lower teeth into his mouth until there was blood. Barret's teeth crunched, and a sharp pain ignited into his mandible.

As Dyne shoved his fist into Barret's jaw, he carried orange tears in his eyes, dark eyebrows narrow.

"You think I don't care about that?! I would give anything to stay home and be with my new daughter! But I will not be a pawn to Shinra's ways. I will not let them run our town!"

Who knew that Dyne's words would eventually fall out of Barret's mouth, years later?

At the time, Barret still didn't quite grasp why Dyne was so against Shinra. Were they that bad? Who cares if they made money running the town's power? The men will find new jobs. The air will grow cleaner. And Barret can stay home, to watch his wife heal.

Each time one of the two men said something, they threw a hit at the other, sometimes missing, and other times, so dented into their skin and muscle, they knew they would be bruised heavily for weeks.

"At least you have a daughter! A beautiful baby girl that I may never have!" Barret screamed, and got away with a crack or two in Dyne's upper ribs.

Dyne hit Barret square in the chest, a blow that knocked him back two steps before he almost lost the ability to breathe.

"And mining for coal helps me feed my baby girl," Dyne growled, watching Barret struggle in his wheezing fit.

The big man huffed and settled his hands over his thighs to tripod his body, anything to help him gulp up enough air to refill his collapsed air sacs.

Dyne's footsteps faded, cracking over pebbles and dirt.

"It will be like it was never built. Now, let's go home," he muttered.

Barret finally took a deep breath, and his lungs expanded once more. He stood straight, and took saving breaths as he watched Dyne leave.

"I thought that would be the end of it," Barret told us. The sun was sinking closer behind a set of blue mountains to the west, a far away range my eyes could barely scan. The heat dropped quickly, and the fans soon stopped, giving all of us an easier chance to listen.

Barret jammed his thumb and fingers over his eyes.

"It took over a day to get back. What a brutal trek that was, hating Dyne for what he did and yet trying to forgive him at the same time. It wasn't easy talking to him. Anyway, skipping all that, when we got close to Corel, we noticed the sky was lit in red…"

"No…" Barret whispered.

Just a few miles left to go, he and Dyne stood over a cliff, and they both stared absently at what lay ahead.

Corel laid to ruin by flames.

The sky turned into the color of blood, with the wooden huts and all the trees in the town, covered in a massive fire. Smoke bloomed up into the blood sky like a monstrous and dark twister, spreading ash and haze across the hills. Screams mixed in with the smoke, and they both spread across the air like an infection, sickening more homes and trees with fires and death.

Barret fell to his knees, and thought Dyne smashed his fists into his chest again. Once more, he lost his ability to breathe, and his mouth fell open, not a sound nor gasp.

Just silence.

His eyes blinked wildly while he shook his head back and forth, his lips quivering as he tried to come up with words, but nothing came out. He gasped, choking the smoke into his lungs until his eyes burned.

He thought of Myrna, the love of his life. Thought of their little hut, how he built it with his own two strong hands. The family they were supposed to have. The future they still had to make together.

Barret lifted his fists into the black and red sky, asking if a God existed, and if so, would He answer a man's prayer? Would Myrna be spared?

Standing next to Barret, Dyne just stared, until he couldn't stare anymore, and sank his face into his hands.

He wept.

"So many of the townspeople. All of my relatives, everyone, everything…." Barret inhaled sharply. "Died…" he finished heavily, the word possibly like slamming a heavy boulder into the tram. We were all stunned. Aerith and I gripped each other, rubbing from our eyes. Yuffie sniffed up her tears loudly. Tifa gasped. Red buried his face into his paws. Cloud held pain in his eyes with silence, probably knowing exactly how Barret felt.

Barret continued his story with his eyes still hiding behind his hand.

"There they are! It's them! They blew up the reactor!" Scarlet screamed.

Shinra troops flooded the trail, using their flamethrowers to burn anything and anyone in their way. Other troops held guns, and fired at Barret and Dyne as they tried to make their escape. They were about to cross the bridge into town, but quickly reconsidered when the Shinra army blocked it off.

Scarlet in high heels, even in the mountains, stomped forward over the train track bridge, her men encircling her as their guns flared to life with bullets and long breaths of fire.

Barret and Dyne ran along the edge of the cliff before the bridge, trying to get out of range. It all happened so fast, Barret couldn't remember all the details. He just remembered Dyne getting hit, and falling.

Dyne cried out Barret's name.

Barret turned, and just before Dyne was to be swallowed up by the dark shadows of the depths below, he gripped his hand. They may have had their disagreements, but the two men still cared about each other. They reflected that easily with their eyes as Barret held Dyne over the ledge. The two shared a look. Barret's was filled with hope. Dyne's, displayed that it was all over. He saw it coming even before it happened.

His lips moved, whispering to Barret words no one else could hear. Those secret words would never be forgotten.

More bullets grazed the cliff, until Barret felt a hard, burning pain crawl up into his right arm, making his fingers flinch open with a painful wail from his lips.

He snapped his eyes shut from the pain. And when he opened them, he found Dyne falling into the darkness.

As he fell, Dyne's hand still reached for Barret, as if by miracle, Barret could grow wings and fly down to swoop him up.

Barret heard that damn jingle sound from the locket as it disappeared with its owner.

And he never saw Dyne again.

Barret finally finished his story, his eyes glued to his gun arm, and the whole tram was silent for a moment.

Nothing but the propellers made noise, spinning along the tram's wings and rear fin. And then, Cloud rose as he asked, "wait, by Shinra troops? Did they burn down the town? Why?"

Barret shook his head, looking down at Red before rubbing his fingers into his furry head.

"They knew what happened at the reactor. Shinra thought of it as a rebel faction, and wanted the people of Corel to pay," he replied, sounding drained from doing all the talking.

Tifa wiped away a few tears. I reached across Barret to return her handkerchief, and she thanked me before rubbing her eyes with it.

"That's so terrible," she sniffed.

"I couldn't forgive myself for what happened," Barret muttered, staring off through the tinted window across from him.

"Barret," I started, and shook my head, bewildered that the survivors of that horrible event, blamed him deeply.

"It's not your fault. Those people shouldn't be blaming you but Dyne," I told him.

But Barret seemed too much shut down to believe me when he replied, "But it is my fault. I didn't stop Dyne in time. And after Shinra spread the word that I helped blew up the reactor, I was the only one who could take the blame. Hal, one of the survivors, and a few others that were left, built that camp city we've just walked through. North Corel. That's all there is now."

Tifa held Barret's arm.

"It's Shinra's fault! They had no right to hurt all of those people," she hissed, and her eyes heated.

Barret used his free arm to shake a fist up to his hard face.

"That's why I get so fucking mad at Shinra. They took everything away from me. My best friend. My wife. My home." He sank his head and dropped his fist.

Tifa squeezed a little tighter.

"It seems we've all lost something or someone because of Shinra," she whispered, and her eyes instantly lifted to Cloud's to meet his gaze, to see if he agreed with her. He uneasily looked away, pushing their lost home out of his mind, not in the mood to fall into those dark memories again.

The intercom crackled to life, and an automated voice rang, "Approaching Gold Saucer in five minutes."

I didn't even notice how dark the sky grew until I watched the night slowly appear. I stood from my seat with Aerith, and stretched out my legs before running up against a window. With my hands pressed to the warm glass, I gazed out, finding hints of a fallen sun behind the mountain range. We were lifted so high, beyond the orange ring of sunset at one end of the world, that all that was left was the dark blue of space. I thought we were heading up to the stars, the glass cooling under my hands. No other lights to be seen as we hovered above a thin layer of clouds. Nothing but the big bright golden tree ready to consume us with its size.

My vision shifted, and I watched Barret walk up behind me to get a good look at Gold Saucer ahead of us. The tram lit up its headlights, twin beams, straight out into the darkness to tell the upcoming station of its position.

The theme park lit up the night like a gigantic lamp. Its golden tree was like a massive cruise ship standing on its bow, and with branches that extended out into what I thought looked like round spaceships, holding areas I couldn't wait to explore. I could already hear the distant festive music, a merry tune you would expect at a carnival. Lights twinkled off the golden plate, indicating that a lot of the separate worlds were indoor, though there were a few outdoor displays.

Barret frowned in his reflection until he shifted his eyes over to me, frowning deeper.

"Dyne, was Luca's older brother," he told me. Through his reflection, I held his solemn gaze, a bit surprised at the coincidence.

"It's a good thing Luca already enrolled with Shinra, or else he would've probably died in that fire. Gwen, who was pregnant at the time, survived, but her lungs never recovered," he explained.

My fingers curled into the glass like I wanted to poke through it and touch the fresh air. The tram's atmosphere saturated with Barret's dark mood, almost spreading in all of us, as I tried not to go into such thoughts. I thought it ironic we were all heading towards a land of entertainment and fun, which may worsen Barret's mood.

"I'm so sorry. I had no idea," I whispered. Barret shrugged. "It's just how it is, I guess," he mumbled, and then pressed his lips together to keep himself quiet.

After a long moment, I thought of Marlene, her beautiful smile and large eyes. He still had his daughter. But that didn't make any sense. His wife died before they had kids. How did that work?

"You still have Marlene," I added, and turned away from the glass to give Barret a warm smile. Unexpectedly, he scoffed and repelled my soft words and smile with a turn of his head. He then sank back to his seat, lips tight shut.

Did I say something wrong?

I froze, watching Barret fume silently, that was until Aerith took my arm and gasped, "look at that!"

I followed her pointed finger out to the window, and the tram glided us over the many little islands. Our faces pressed against the glass, smudging our cheeks to get a good view of what the theme park had to offer.

Held by a golden branch, I spotted a spaceship sized disc holding up nothing but lit up roller coasters. To another, a battle arena sat, with large beams of light striking into space. Another disc flashed neon signs of upcoming sales and clothing brands, a large shopping center and arcade. Balloons escaped from a large glass mall, scattering in colors of the rainbow, and passed by our tram like a flock of bulging birds, taking flight up to the fading stars.

Yuffie was all over the glass, her eyes wide while she awed at the scenery.

"Oh wow! I can't wait to play!" she cheered. Aerith jumped in, sharing her excitement.

"Me too!"

I admit, I was thrilled, but I preferred not to eclipse Barret's feelings, and decided to stay quiet, smiling at the two ladies jumping up and down until the tram rocked too much.

"Please, I prefer not to fall and die on this thing," Red begged, his legs shaking as he tried to steady himself through all the swaying.

Bright neon signs greeted us with "Welcome to Gold Saucer" before our tram entered into a tunnel. It was dark briefly, nothing but faint lamps aligning the way along an air strip, and then we fell into a world of color and bright lamps.

The tram hummed to a stop, and the whirling propellers finally came to a standstill. When the doors whooshed open, air-conditioned air spilled into the cart, already chilling my legs.

Aerith and Yuffie skipped out, cheering, followed by everyone else.

What an overload of stimulation stepping out of the doors and into Gold Saucer's Tram Station.

All of a sudden, the music was everywhere, a festive tune that reminded me of my trips to state fairs and Coney Island. No matter where I spun or where I stepped, the music seemed to follow, which made it seem like someone with a speaker system was following right behind me. The music was going to get old real quick.

So many smells of foods, mostly fried deliciousness and sweetness when I took a whiff. I thought I could almost taste the sugary pastries, imagining fried elephant ears and cotton candy. The air was artificially cold, as though to pretend we weren't in the middle of a desert at a height of probably 3,000 feet. But what got me good, were the lights. It was so bright at first, I had to squint when I stepped out. Rainbow colors of lamps radiated the colorful pathway up to the ticket booths. Some of them were like search lights, shooting out thick beams into the dark sky and waving around like an event was happening.

When my eyes adjusted, I almost crashed into someone in a fat chocobo suit, and gasped.

The fat chocobo with stitched in squinted eyes, peered down at me with a goofy laugh, and a voice bellowed behind its beak, "welcome to Gold Saucer! Would you like to take a picture with me?!"

I pushed the fat suit away as I gasped, "n-no thanks," and rushed to catch up with the others at the ticket booth.

Cloud was leaning over the counter before the teller, and sighed into his hands to hide his frustration over the price.

"This is stupid. Why are we even here?" he asked anyone.

Aerith poked him in the ribs.

"Don't back down now!" she whined.

Cloud rubbed down his face and growled, "we've already splurged at Costa Del Sol. Let's try not to go overboard, or else it's powerbars and sleeping in tents for a while."

As Cloud brutally paid for our tickets to enter the park, I couldn't stop gazing at all the fat chocobo art on the floor, and then thought, Sephiroth would come to this place?

I doubt it.

Wouldn't have people noticed the legendary SOLDIER sulking around in a theme park? Something didn't add up correctly.

"Aqua, come on!" Aerith cheered. I lifted my eyes to her from the floor art, and watched her disappear into a rainbow tunnel. Yuffie was on her tail, passing onlookers gazing at the front of her shirt. Sooner or later, someone had to tell that girl what her shirt meant.

Cloud sizzled quietly. I walked by him, hands on my hips, and asked, "is it THAT expensive?"

Cloud closed his eyes, and I thought I saw a vein pop out of his forehead.

"When you put in their Gold Saucer currency, yes. They don't take Gil here. They take fucking GP. What kind of low life would fucking come up with that system?"

I smirked, intrigued over Cloud's rarity of using such strong language, and shrugged.

"Someone who knew how to make a lot of money. It's not fair, but people will pay," I replied. Cloud seemed to calm a bit, letting his heat fall out in a long exhale, and then he handed me a bright pink ticket along with a black plastic card.

"Everyone gets their own GP card. There should be enough in here for a few things, but don't go spending it too quick. I won't help you refill it," he told me as I blankly took the card and ticket from him.

I stared at the card, like a credit card, but its cover was black with a cartoon of a fat chocobo.

"Thanks," I muttered, and hid it away in my pack with my bright pink ticket. Groups of people passed us, on their way to the tram in different conversations. Maybe it was just me, but I could've sworn everyone was staring at me.

Whispers spread, but I wasn't sure what they were all saying, blending in with the music.

For distraction, I stared at Barret, marching a few feet away with his head low.

"Do we really have to be here?" I whispered to Cloud, as my eyes stayed on a sulking Barret. Cloud knew what I meant, his eyes following to the depressing man, and he sighed.

"I know it looks bad, but what else can we do?"

I shook my head, unsure as much as Cloud was.

"I suppose it's better for Barret to be here than to leave him at North Corel," I answered.

More stares passed.

I started to grow nervous, unless they were looking at Cloud and his massive sword.

"Is it just me or are people staring?" I whispered.

He did, indeed, notice, and raised an eyebrow.

"It's not just you," he assured, and left it at that, pondering the same thing.

The rainbow tunnel finally ended, welcoming us into a bright gathering food court. Many people loitered around, sitting at bench tables, standing in line to a dozen or more food carts and booths. Others stood to watch the giant televisions that were on display. This was like the main square, where we could grab lunch, look out for updates on the park, know the times of the events and any park info. There were info booths, more odd creature mascots I didn't recognize, and many tunnels leading to the many themed lands.

We should all be discussing where to fall to first, but all of our eyes became glued to the main square's flat screen, surrounded by other screens. Among the many digital screens, the biggest in the center, glared at us.

It broadcasted someone standing at a podium, a microphone close to his thin lips.

The man speaking to all of us was Rufus Shinra.

I sucked in a breath, eyes glued to his calm state as he spoke at a conference. It had to be recorded at what appeared to be Costa Del Sol, judging by the lovely, bright beach behind him. Palm trees swayed over his head, a small gust tossing at Scarlet's blond hair as she stood behind him with Heidegger and Palmer. Isaac was there too, in the background, and his face was hard as he stared at Rufus's back. Cameras flashed. A herd of microphones held out to Rufus, shoving questions about the corner photo.

I became numb from a sudden chill.

The photo was a shot of Rufus speaking to me at that helipad in Costa Del Sol only yesterday. Someone took a good profile shot of us, my hair into his hand while his chopper sat in the background, the morning sun giving us good lighting.

I smacked my hands onto my cold cheeks and instantly ducked my head, staring at a painted fat chocobo under my feet with horror.

No…

"As of now, we don't have a set date yet," Rufus was saying. "But I guarantee, it should be by the end of this year, if not sooner. I know she's doing her own thing, backpacking like a free bird before the demands of being the president's wife."

Silence settled as his words processed in their heads.

And then…

"WHAT?!" I heard from multiple voices in the group.

I could disturbingly feel it, all of their stares, as I tried not to wheeze. A cold sweat collected along my back where my pack settled. I didn't want to look up again, not to see the shocked look on their faces.

I recalled Rufus's smile when I left. A smile that held many plans. Was this what he was planning?

Rufus Shinra decided to tell the whole world that he and I were going to be married.

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