The world came back in a slow, painful blur—the third time in three days that Cloud had woken up confused. This time, he woke up on the couch.

Tifa, Barret, and Wedge all assembled in the bar, awaiting his triumphant return. Tifa in particular leaned on the wall with her arms crossed, a disgusted furrow on her brow.

"Tifa," Cloud groaned from on his stomach, and then realized something. "…Why am I naked?"

All eyes trained on him in stern gazes.

"You tell us," she said, and that's when it hit. It all came back to Cloud.

The blood rushed from his face as he turned stark pale. Tifa stomped outside to the back porch, while everyone else filed out to leave Cloud alone.

He stumbled off the couch, and the pain that shot up his legs confirmed everything for him in sickening horror. With the blanket tucked around his waist, he rushed downstairs like a staggering, drunken mad man and fell into the shower. Cold water slicing down at him, soap that flew out of his hands that he couldn't even bend down to grab if he wanted to, he slumped down into the chipped-tile corner and sobbed into his hands.

"Welcome to the Slums. Welcome to the Slums."

The next few days passed mercilessly slow, raining salt on Cloud's bloody wounds. He sat out on the stoop of the bar, leaning his head against the post and gazing droopy-eyed off into nowhere. The world seemed to give him the cold shoulder, but he was used to shame. The only one who wouldn't leave him alone was Red.

He came up to Cloud with a ball in his mouth, but Cloud took it and put it behind his back. Then the sad-eyed mutt trotted up with a Frisbee in his mouth. Cloud threw it on the roof. Next he brought a stick, but Cloud grumbled No and tossed it. Red Ran after it joyful…until it landed in the garbage can. Cloud slumped back against the post with a heavy sigh, until Red brought him a car bumper.

"Gyahh, Red! Go lay down! Go!"

The dog finally gave up. Cloud sank back into his aimless thoughts, watching the world turn. He didn't know what he was doing here, or if he was even still welcome here anyway. She made the money, she put him up, and now she wasn't speaking to him. She even had Wedge running the Seamless deliveries, but tips still sat in an envelope for Cloud as if giving him the nudge out the door. Take it and go. He guessed he was just working up the nerve.

After a long time, someone did speak to him though. Barret came out and sat next to him like this was middle school all over again, a message runner for a mutual friend. Cloud braced himself inside, but outside he just stared a million miles out into nowhere. Barret took a breath and watched with him.

"You go to the clinic—?"

"Yup. Negative."

Barret pursed his lips.

"Hate to say it but, you lucky Lil' Mo. I know guys in that same sitch wind up dead." Cloud winced at Barret's bluntness. He had the sensitivity of a sledgehammer. "You talk to Tifa yet?"

"She won't speak to me, and I don't blame her."

"Well hell, you shoulda told me you wanted to pork sumethin'! We woulda gone someplace else!"

"I'm tripping out. I took Dancer and now I can't stop thinking about getting more."

"Don't worry, I'll watch you. Cravings go away in a week anyway."

Now Cloud cringed. His life was a downspiraling nightmare. Might as well make it worse…

"Does she want me to leave?"

"Hasn't said anything," Barret shook his head, and then silence ensued for a moment. "I don't understand, Mo. You been all up on each other for a long time now. The way you two fight, yous fixin ta git married. Why don't you guys try somethin'?"

"I can't just try with my best friend."

"Why not?"

A long look of despair crossed Cloud's shaded cyan eyes.

"…Because if she goes, then I'll truly be alone."

Barret rubbed his good hand over his brow.

"You love her?"

"Eerrrrgh."

"C'mon Mo, she a beautiful girl with a heart that don't fuck around with no one but you. All this time she aint had one boyfriend, not even a hookup, and you don't even see the niggas I be throwin outta here comin onto her! You sayin you don't got something special there?"

"I don't know! I don't know how I feel."

"Oh you tellin' me you don't know bout all them times you come through for her? Damn near kill yourself cause she ask you to. Thas ur woman, bro. Go to'er!"

"I can't!"

Then Biggs appeared from around the corner.

"We're ready for the next run boss. He comin'?"

But Barret just eyed Cloud with a stern brow.

"Naw. Cloud ain't comin, even if he wants to. I don't got room for pussies on my crew."

He stood up then and Cloud leapt up after him.

"Another reactor?"

"Might make the donations start again, since someone ain't man enough to get the job done."

"Hey what the fuck! Seriously what the fucking fuck! I go through hell and highwater! I do backflips! I'm slumming it down here, I don't even eat half the time! I—"

"Aw kiddo gonna throw a temper tantrum and think that it gonna solve his problems."

"I was a SOLDIER dammit! I was in the war! That fucks with a person! I have problems I don't even remember how I got!"

Barret just held up his arm-cannon—tell me about it—and Cloud shut up.

"Son, it don't matter if you fought Satan in the realm of the Ancient Ones to get your probs, what matters that they are there, and what kind of man are you can't do nuthin' about em?"

Barret's words hit him straight on like a round from that gun of his. So much for Cloud's masculinity, like everything else in his life he didn't have much control over. He turned in a blue haze as if to run away. But Barret kept on him.

"You always runnin' Cloud, speedin through life like you tryin'ta get it over with. You got one foot on the Plate and one in the Slums, like you can't step up. You work for everyone and no one, mercenary, but now that you missed quota, Don Corneo's henchmen gonna come down here and put a bullet in your head. It's over, man! You got nothin' left to lose! Throw your lot in full this time. Why don't you join us?"

Cloud faced the big man with a look of mottled fear, as if a crossroads had been laid out at his feet. Join AVALANCHE? In full? He was already gun-running, drug-dealing, hustling and fighting for them, but joining up meant one more job he'd have to take on or get taken out: hits. A fact that turned in Cloud's stomach leered. He had it in him.

But Barret just scoffed.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Yous afraid of commitment."

Then he and Biggs walked away, leaving Cloud alone outside the one place he'd called home in what seemed like forever, that was now being taken away.

Meanwhile Tifa stood out back throwing a ball for Red, with much less enthusiasm that the dog had. It didn't take long for Barret to walk up to her as well.

"Wassup girl?" he nodded. She nodded back but didn't say anything, a long, listless look in her eyes. "So watchu got going on wit Lil' Mo?"

Tifa winced, and looked away, but Barret just smiled and shook his head.

"I'm old enough to be your papa girl, yous are all like my kids here. You can tell Ole Barret what's eatin' ya."

A heavy sigh, and she started talking.

"It's just so hard with him. One minute he's here and then the next I don't even know who he is. One minute he wants me and is confessing his undying love for me, and then the next he's saying we just hooked up and I should forget about it."

"Eh, young guy. Guys do that shit. Got a head fulla chemical that make'im stupid, start fights and wars that mess errthing up, make life miserable for errone! I tell'ya, he don't got his head screwed on right anyway, even for a dude."

"Oh what so that just gives him a free pass to have me when he's feeling like his head isn't screwed on right, then go off and do I don't even know what and tell me to forget about it?"

"Mo's wrong, Letty. He know it, too. He feelin' it worse than anyone in the world right now. Knows he gonna have to live wit what he done to you and to hisself. But why you even want that lil nigga anyway? He shows up here all beat up from the war and you been fawnin over him eva since just cu' he broken."

"I knew him before he got here."

"So yous was friends during the war when he was deployed to your hometown, but the war's over now. You shouldn't be takin' care'a anyone, you done wit that. He should be takin care'a you!"

Barret's good hand was animated and all over the place, trying to drive his point home with her, and he knew he was getting through. She held herself with downturned eyes on the ground, and Barret stood up tall and solemn.

"Lemme tellya a story, girl, bout another guy who done fucked up and left a good woman. I was Mo's age and met me a steady girl. Tries ta get me on the straight-and-narrow, get mah shit sorted, get outta the gangs and all. She finds out about my side-hoes and says nuthin, don't even bat an eye. I dropped her cold, til I met up with her few years ago all broken-up and missin' an arm to boot. She takes care'a me like you takin' care'a Mo. Here's me getting cold feet though and bailing again, til I finds out she's havin' my baby. THEN I gits all committed, like I'm not the nigga who fucked around in the first place. I hustle like a mofo, take care'a her, and she decides she don't want this life for our kid, decides she wanna go to law school, I pay for it. While she all off studyin' I'm takin' care'a my daughter. I'm givin' her the bottle, I'm changin' nappies, puttin' her ta bed. She said dada first. Then when Mama graduates, she clean takes off, moves above the Plate and takes my lil' girl wit her. Now thas messed up, but I ain't a little sucker anymore, I'm man enough to admit when I done goofed, and it came back ta haunt me."

"That sucks, Barret. Sorry that happened."

"What I'm tryina say for you is you don't wanna waste yo time with us slumdogs down here. We all slummin' it, and you can't take the slum outta the man after he been through enough down here. He always gonna be looking for a getaway when things get hairy, always gonna be cuttin' corners like he dealin in lowcity again. You want a man who gonna be committed to you, not some washbucket who gonna take off soon as you need'im."

"Tch, yeah like I didn't put up with enough of that in school anyway," she scoffed sidelong.

"Where you from, girl? Tell Ole Barret bout it."

"I'm from waaaay out North, a place called Nibelheim."

"Oh snap, that the place that got blown up during the war?"

"No, that's a different place, but it did get destroyed and good riddance, I guess."

"Why's that?"

"Because growing up there was hell. It was all of a square mile in the middle of nowhere. Everyone knew everyone and no one ever got out. My dad was a hotshot photographer, so he was never around. He was paranoid enough about his daughter though. Ever since I got lost in the woods with my best friend, he went all ultra-conservative, tried to keep boys out of my life at all costs. He put me in church school and stuck me on birth-control, at thirteen! I was running around like a raging nymphomaniac, hopped up on hormones with tits the size of planets! Oh my god my back still hurts thinking about it. My dad let me train in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but wouldn't let me join the wrestling team at school because it was all boys! Oh yeah Dad, because if I ever get mugged in a back alley, it's totally going to be by another girl. Life sucked there, I'm just glad I'm not there anymore, and to be honest I'm kinda glad it's not there anymore either."

"Man, from one father to anotha I can see how easy it is to go ovaboard. Where your daddy at now?"

"He's dead."

"Aw, man…" Barret cringed at the thought. "I'm sorry, girl. But don't you fret, you got family here now. Ole Mo, forget'im, he'll come around. How I know? Because I was a young idiot once too, Barret knows. Besides, you really want a man whose ass you can kick across kingdom-come on a bad day?"

That got a slight smile out of her. A little smile was a little victory. He hit her chin up with a long finger.

"You just chin up. You're beautiful and someone who deserves ya's gonna see it soon. Now c'mere and give Ole Barret a hug."

That had her smiling, a full beaming grin that pierced the Plate and let the sun shine in. He hugged her like she'd just graduated college, or gotten married, or some life milestone that he hoped to one day be able to repeat again. But for now, this practice was just fine. He held her out to arms length with a satisfied smirk.

Then, boot steps on the back porch. Someone was finally ready to talk. They saw Cloud standing there as straight and tall as he could manage, and Barret looked back at Tifa.

"You remember what I told ya."

Then he walked away to let the kids talk.

Tifa stood not looking at Cloud as he took slow steps toward her. He stopped in front of her like a highwayman turning himself into the law. A gap lay between them like an impenetrable wall, something she'd put there to protect herself, six feet of space that separated them like an entire world.

They started talking at the same time and stopped. He cringed, then let up when he saw her do the same. Well, strike one for us both.

"I'm…afraid," he said in a sad monotone. She furrowed her brow.

"Of what?"

"…That you hate me."

Her eyes fell to the ground, and she grasped herself as if trying to keep her insides from spilling out.

"…I'm pretty mad."

"…I can tell."

A light breeze blew ravenhair strands toward him, and the world seemed to disappear. She looked up to meet his distant cyan eyes.

"Are you okay?" she asked, and he just shook his head.

"…No. You?"

"…No."

And silence. A dam seemed to overflow in that next moment, letting all they were trying to hold back spill out in a flood.

"Look, I don't want to fight—"

"I don't either—"

"It's just that—"

"It's just—"

"You and me—"

"It's not fair—"

"I don't know anything anymore—"

"Why? Just why?—"

"It's not you—"

"Is it me?—"

"I just don't want to lose—"

"Why can't we just—"

"Please understand—"

"Please—"

And they tripped, choking on their words again. It all came to a screeching halt as their thoughts bashed together in a brining storm. He hated the static more than anything.

"Barret asked me to join AVALANCHE. I'm going to tell him yes."

"No! Why!"

"Because it can get us out of here!"

"You're just diving in deeper! You'll never get out! No one ever gets out!"

"I don't want to die down here. I refuse! This place has taken everything away from me. I don't know how you see me, but everything aside, I consider you family. I'm not going to let it take you too! This thing with us, we'll figure it out, NOT here."

And he bore into her. That six feet became two, and his shadow oppressed her. The SOLDIER in him reared like a warrior, standing tall with the enemies of the world at his back, holding them at bay.

"Let's go. One more run. And then let's get the hell out of dodge and never look back."

.

[Received Echo Screen]