Death of a Dream


Chapter II: The Aftermath

I awoke to Barret's booming voice and the noticeable slowing of the train. Strange dream I had, I must say. Something about me being the leader of AVALANCHE and trying to get Barret to do what I told him. Oh well. I shrugged off the thought and hopped off the train once the conductor opened the door. Barret called us over.

"This mission was a success. But don't get lazy now. The hard part's still to come! Don't y'all be scared of that explosion!" Barret told us. Scared? That had to have been THE coolest thing I've ever seen. I dunno what he was babbling about. "'Cause the next one's gonna be bigger than that!" Bigger? Why bigger? Wasn't that explosion big enough? Took out the reactor didn't it? What is he aiming on doing, blowing up the entire city? "Meet back at the hideout!! Move out!" I shrugged and half jogged, half ran to the hideout. I was hungry and itching for some beer. Ahhh…beer.

Jessie, Wedge and I waited outside as Barret stormed into the bar and 'escorted' the regular boozers out. We all ran in, minus Barret and Cloud. I sat down at the table and Tifa brought me a plate of scrambled eggs and an ice-cold beer. Wedge made short work of his plate. Jessie seemed a little down for some reason. She mumbled something about us being so excited for no apparent reason. I myself made short work of my bottle of beer. Cloud came over to talk to me. He flatly refused my offer for a bottle. He acts bigger than Barret at times.

Speaking of…Barret bashed through the door just as Cloud was going to go out looking for him. He announced the meeting was starting, and he pressed the button to go down on our little pinball machine. I got up and jumped down the hole beneath the floorboards and Wedge and Jessie followed. Once downstairs I sat down on one of the crates surrounding our 'table'.

"Heh, lets see how our friends back at ShinRa think of our little 'gift' we gave them…' chuckled Jessie as she swiped the remote from the table and flipped the TV on to the news channel. Sure enough, breaking news. Jessie grinned with a sense of triumph then sat down at her computer and started working on her next bomb. I leaned back against the brick wall of our little hideout. Barret was punching away at his custom punching bag. I still couldn't get over that little face of President ShinRa painted on there. I snatched an issue of 'ShinRa Monthly' and started flipping through the pages as Wedge happily munched on a bag of potato chips he stole from Tifa upstairs.

Cloud jumped down from above. Barret stopped punching his bag and looked at him.

"Yo. Cloud! There's somethin' I wanna ask ya…" Barret called over to him. Cloud nodded. "Was there anyone from SOLDIER fighting us today?"

"None. I'm positive." He replied as flat as a piece of paper.

"You sound pretty sure." Well, I don't think you can get much surer than 'positive'.

"If there was anyone from SOLDIER you wouldn't be standing here now." Cloud continued.

"Don't go thinkin' you so bad jes cuz you was in SOLDIER." Barret seemed a little annoyed. Who'd blame 'em? Cloud remained silent. "Yeah, you're strong…probably all them guys in SOLDIER are. But don't forget your skinny ass's working for AVALANCHE now! Don't get no ideas 'bout hangin' on to Shinra."

Cloud got all defensive. "Stayin' with Shinra? You asked me a question and I answered it... that's all." Cloud glanced at the elevator then turned back to Barret. "I'm going upstairs. I want to talk about my money."

Okay, THAT pissed off 'Mr. Timebomb'. Barret lunged at Cloud, but my reflexes were faster. I jumped up and grabbed Barret's arm and tried to hold him back. As much as I didn't like Cloud, I didn't EXACTLY would want to be the one to mop up the blood and dispose of the body. Barret didn't like that at all. Unfortunately, he had found another target to bash…me. I winced as Barret raised his arm, and gave me a knuckle sandwich on dark rye. I flew into the brick wall, then came crashing down, back first, onto the crate I was just sitting on. I heard a few gasps out of Jessie and Wedge. My last thought was, 'Damn…that's gonna leave a mark' before I passed out.