Start Date: October 2022

Windwillow

The italicized text is in Dio's handwriting, etched on the letter he leaves to Cloud after the race.

Final Fantasy VII

Cloud and his friends' trip into the floating amusement park, the Gold Saucer, ended in catastrophe. They were accused of massacring several people and thrown into the ruins below without a trial. There the full truth of Barret's past was revealed, and now the only way to escape the desert prison is to find his friend Dyne, get his permission to act, and for Cloud to win a chocobo race high up above the Saucer. Between Dyne's Gun-arm and a world-class jockey, their chances are far from good. But, given that our heroes are indeed our heroes, those chances are higher than the numbers might indicate...

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Escaping the Flying Saucer

Scene One

Their purpose set, the party decided on their course of action. Cloud and Tifa would join Barret in his search for Dyne, and the rest of the party would hole up in Barret's old house to await their return. Yuffie complained quite a bit about the smell, but Tifa's glare promptly silenced her and the three friends headed out to meet Mr. Coates. Perhaps not surprisingly, they were granted an audience almost immediately. Breaking down Coates' door and storming into his office quickened the process.

"And that's the story!" Barret growled harshly, his Gun-arm to Coates' face. The head of the desert prison now shrank in terror, flanked by Cloud and Tifa, as Barret 'convinced' Coates to help the three of them. As Coates started to nearly foam at the mouth, Barret opened the hatches of his weapon and poked Coates' chest. "You be so kind as to tell me where I can find my old friend Dyne?" he asked coldly. "He and I need to catch up a bit."

"Holy son of a-" Coates gasped indignantly, but was quickly silenced as Barret's barrels switched to his face. He considered asking for help, but one of the other people present was Tifa and so it seemed highly unlikely. Swallowing hard, he nervously pointed towards the northeast of the prison. "H-H-He's got his own place up there..." he croaked. "Please don't kill me..."

Dyne's stronghold was past the fences at the edge of the complex, stretching out from the near endless desert to an old graveyard near the perimeter of what used to be Corel. Barret and his two friends exited Coates' office and headed northeast, where they found a large wasteland fortress built over the ridge of a chasm. What awaited them was a small welcoming party: a dozen bandits and three mechanized Bull Motors, what amounted to primitive tanks armed with spikes on the wheels and a set of cannons on either end of the vehicle.

"The boss doesn't accept visitors!" barked one of the three motorized tank operators. With the other bandits brandishing a series of axes, he narrowed his eyes at Barret and trained the cannon on his head. "Now, I suggest you leave before-" A devastating air bullet blew apart the Bull Motor and its rider, plowed through a second one, and knocked the remainder of the thugs off balance, leaving them with the sight of a very irritated Barret with his Gun-arm's hatches opened at the ones who remained.

His face ashen, Barret turned his eyes to Cloud and Tifa as one after the other they charged into the melee. Following the (very brief) encounter, and after passing by fifteen corpses and three shredded tanks, the party entered the stronghold and passed through the halls of Dyne's fortress. None of the remaining thugs bothered the three of them, Barret's Gun-arm and Cloud's titanic sword convincing them to remain on the sidelines. The final area of the fortress opened into a run down graveyard, punctuated by crude crosses to mark the resting places of the fallen, a huge chasm at the back marking the final boundary to the desert prison. Once it had been a junkyard, but now amidst the rubble and refuse a lone man stood staring out into the precipice: a fair-haired, raggedly dressed man wearing overalls and carrying a large rifle on his left arm as a prosthesis.

"You two hold tight," Barret barked to Cloud and Tifa, "and don't come any closer if you don't want a bullet in your brains. Could be Dyne's or mine... This is my business." he growled, with no further argument from his friends. He walked tentatively towards the man before him, step after step weighted with more hatred and guilt than a normal man could bear. Finally stopping at the edge of the makeshift graveyard, Barret took a deep breath in and started to proceed. He was met with a shell aimed at his feet, which he narrowly dodged. Instinctively he lifted his weapon, but lowered it quickly as Dyne lifted his head and turned around. Dyne's eyes were different than when Barret had last saw them; now, they seemed like dying embers inside hollow chasms.

"Four years..." Dyne grunted as he turned around. When he did so it became clear that his left leg had been mauled by the incident at Corel, as he dragged it along the ground as he approached. On his left arm a cannon-like rifle replaced his former flesh and bone, which he used as a crutch to move on his shattered knee. "It's only been four years, but it feels like a lifetime, doesn't it?" he snarled. "I never thought I'd see your ugly mug again..."

Scene Two

The rundown graveyard held the bones of many victims of the Corel fiasco, dropped in crude ditches and marked with sticks stitched together as crosses. On one end there was a bulky dark-skinned man with a beetle-shelled machine gun on his right arm. Facing him was a broken man holding himself up with a cannon on his left arm. Though they used to be friends, the chasm that marked the end of the desert prison paled in comparison to the gap between their hearts.

"I didn't think I'd ever hear your voice again, but Eleanor's is pounding in my ears like a drum..." Dyne growled softly, hoisting up his left arm and firing a shot that grazed Barret's cheek and that forced Cloud to dodge. The barrel smoking, Dyne's expression hardened into a demonic glare. "And every time she speaks, my dearly departed wife begs me not to hate your guts. If she wasn't talking to me now, I would have hunted you down and put a bullet between your eyes four years ago..." he said coldly.

Barret smudged the blood on his cheek with his thumb, looking briefly at the stain of red. He tightened his fist over it and turned his eye to Dyne with a narrowed glare, anger swelling inside him. "And your solution," he growled, "is to murder innocent people?! You've lost it completely or what?!"

"The only innocents I gave a damn about are dead and buried!" Dyne shouted with a snarling roar that made Barret's blood run cold. "All the killers leave behind are artilley, excuses, and misery..." He tightened his fist hard enough to draw blood, then licked it off his wrist. "I hate Shinra!" he shouted, punctuating it with a shot into the air. "The world that tolerates its existence!" A third shot rang out. "The world that murdered my wife and child! To hell with all of it!" he roared.

"Hell ain't stolen everything from you, Dyne!" shouted Barret. Averting his eyes, he slowly trained them back on his fallen friend with a look of sympathy. "Marlene is alive..." he said quietly, shocking Dyne. "She's back in Midgar being taken care of by the mother of one of my friends... So you ain't lost everything yet, Dyne. Only way you will is if you keep murdering people."

"Marlene is... alive?" Dyne repeated, his eyes widening. A thin smirk crossed his face, widening into a deranged smile that matched the demonic glare in his eyes. "Then bring her here. Now! So I can kill her!" Barret's eye twitched in frustration and his friends gasped, and he slowly strode towards Dyne. "She must want to see her mother, right? Eleanor deserves to see her one more time in the next world!" he snarled dementedly. "I can't deny my dear daughter her-" Dyne's head flew back as Barret slugged him hard in his jaw. As his head turned back, Barret took him by the back of the head and slammed Dyne's face into his own forehead.

"Pull your head out of your ass!" Barret snarled, grabbing Dyne by the face and squeezing it with his fingers. Cloud briefly moved forward, but was stopped as Barret's Gun-arm opened with its hatches aimed at Cloud's head. After Cloud moved back, Barret turned back to Dyne. "Face it. Face what we lost, accept it, and move on. Y'know, I still haven't given up on you. And neither has Marlene..."

Dyne shoved Barret away angrily and lifted his Gun-arm to his face. "Well, I've given up on her!" Dyne snarled. "What I lost that day was more than my arm and leg. My faith in this rotten world went with it! My humanity! My soul! And tell me one thing, Barret!" he shouted as he put his face to Barret's. "How old was Marlene when it all went down? She was a God damn baby! There's no way she'd even recognize me, let alone accept me as a father after all I've done!"

"We've both made mistakes that cost others their lives..." sighed Barret. "No amount of talking peace and justice or murder and misery will wipe the blood from our hands. We're too stained to go back, but she's pure as snow..." As Dyne's eyes seemed to soften, Barret swallowed hard and stared straight into Dyne's soul. "You ain't dirtied that snow yet, and you don't have to. It's not too late to bring your humanity back..." he murmured. "Do it. Not for me, but for your daughter... She's your salvation, Dyne, just like she was mine."

Slowly, Dyne lowered his Gun-arm. Then he punched Barret in the gut, sending him to his knees. As Barret fell and gripped his aching stomach, he felt a strange sensation around his neck as Dyne placed a pearl necklace over his head that ended in a ruby pendant. Giving a look of shock Barret lifted his head, finding Dyne's face had returned from the dead into the realm of humanity. Though Barret smiled, Dyne's face remained emotionless. While Barret staggered to his feet, Dyne turned towards the gorge silently.

"Show this to that dumb ass Coates and he'll let you out of here..." Dyne said with a sigh. Though a smile crossed Barret's face, Dyne refused to move, causing him to pause. "She's four, right? You give her the biggest birthday cake you can every year of her life for the rest of her life. Biggest party, too. Balloons, clowns, the works." Dyne then hesitantly began walking towards the end of the graveyard. Each step seemed heavier than the last, his body swaying back and forth under the weight of his left arm as he dragged his broken leg behind him. As Dyne continued to move, Barret struggled to find an answer to his words. But as Dyne approached the precipice at the end of the gorge, the chasm leading down to the depths below, Barret quickly realized what his friend was doing and staggered to his feet.

"No, Dyne! You idiot!" Barret screamed, his voice hoarse from stress. But Dyne's punch had been stronger than he thought, and he dropped to one knee almost immediately and spat up saliva. With everything he had in him Barret caught his balance and staggered towards Dyne, each step more desperate than the last. At the end of the gorge Dyne paused and turned around, looking at his friend with the eyes of a man who'd decided his own fate. Barret grit his teeth and quickly charged forward, but wouldn't reach him in time.

"You'd better remember these words, Barret Wallace!" shouted Dyne as he held his arms to his sides as if he were a cross, a grim smile of satisfaction crossing his face as he accepted his redemption. "If you ever make her cry, I'll claw my way out of hell and drag you down with me!" he rasped as he fell back. Though Barret made progress, he failed to catch Dyne before he began to fall. By the time he'd reached the end of the cliff, Dyne had already fallen to his death. But, he went as a man rather than a demon, thanks to Barret and the redemption of Marlene's snow-white soul. Barret clenched his fist and gnashed his teeth together. His every thought turned to Marlene, of what he now owed to her and to Dyne. Before his knees touched the ground tears had fallen from his cheeks onto the dead ground below him.

"You think I'm any better than you? Really?!" Barret agonized as Tifa rushed up to hold him. While she cradled his massive body and broken heart, Tifa's words faded into the echoes of Barret's beating heart before they could even reach his ears. For the first time in four years, he felt sorrow burst from his chest and began to loudly sob. "My hands ain't clean enough for her either!" he choked. "I ain't got nothing but blood on 'em! How the hell am I supposed to carry her like that, huh?!"

Scene Three

The thugs that remained in the stronghold surrendered to their emotions as well. Part of them was relieved to be free of Dyne's domination, but the other bled for the leader they'd come to respect. Using the pieces of scrap gathered from throughout the hideout, they stitched together a patchwork cross that they embedded firmly in the place Dyne had taken his last breath. For all the hell he'd wrought, it was never any more than the agony in his heart, and the three party members left them to decide on a new hierarchy.

Tifa and Cloud dragged Barret back to his old house, where the party reunited. Though they all were pained by Barret's loss, they all took the news differently. Aerith's eyes were awash with tears, tears she held back as best she could. Red XIII solemnly curled around a crying Barret and laid down with him. Yuffie, however, was perhaps the most strangely affected. After all the arguing and fighting she'd had with Barret, seeing the proud man she'd met reduced to a complete wreck brought back thoughts of her father's reaction to the war's conclusion. Godo's depression, brought on by Wutai's defeat, had been the catalyst for her to set out on her travels.

Y'know, Barret... Dad sounded just like you do... Hearing it again... it kinda pisses me off, you know? You're better than that punk... Pull it together, you ass. I ain't letting you give up like he did...

Once everyone had calmed down, Barret dried his tears and took hold of Dyne's necklace. It had been an heirloom of Dyne's wife Eleanor, and it made him remember when they exchanged rings. And that made him think of his own wife, their vows, and the losses he'd suffered. Now he had to carry Dyne's will with him, to repay Shinra - Scarlet especially - for the man they'd twisted into a demon, a casualty for which they'd pay in their own blood.

Getting another audience was Mr. Coates was just as easy as the previous two. The first had cost Coates his desk, the second his door, and now a good chunk of his wall lay fractured on the floor. Everyone in the party, led by Barret, now stood in front of Mr. Coates, Dyne's necklace around his neck. Barret clutched Dyne's pendant tightly before removing it from his neck and presenting it to Coates, whose eyes widened like dinner plates (used dinner plates, marred by the cracks evident in his eyes).

"That's Dyne's... Dyne's... Oh, good grief..." moaned Mr. Coates sadly as he hung his head. Clearly he'd expected something different, but then he wasn't in a good position to think clearly either way. "So he's dead, huh? Maybe now the place will calm down a bit..." When Barret unhatched his guns and shoved them in Coates' face, the poor fool soiled his new underwear and shrank to the ground with a screech. "Or maybe I'm just an idiot, one or the other!" he squeaked. "Please don't kill me!"

"You got the boss's final permission," growled Barret, "so pony up and get us the hell out of here. That's not a request, by the way..." He retracted the hatches of his Gun-arm and lowered it to his side, and Coates breathed a brief sigh of relief, a brief reprieve before Barret glared daggers at him from high above. "We did what you said. Now hold up your part of the bargain, you ugly-suited freak."

"Oh, well, um... um..." Coates stuttered madly, his heart beating faster than it could normally process. He brushed his pompadour from his sweat covered face and straightened his tie. "Well, that's the thing. Just getting permission's not enough-" The return of Barret's gun to his face prompted Coates to shift his tone. "I'm serious! You have to win a chocobo race to get out of here! No exceptions or Dio will fire me!" he shrieked.

"If you don't do it, I'll kill you," Barret snarled, chilling Coates again and causing him to leap back in terror. "But if that's what it takes, fine..." shrugged Barret as he closed his hatches and lowered his Gun-arm. He turned to Cloud and gave him a thumbs-up. "Yo, spiky head. Get up there and kick some ass for us. We'll all be waiting for you," he said with a toothy grin. "And hurry it up. We ain't got all year to be stuck in this hell hole."

"Why does it always have to be me?!" Cloud shouted, his migraine once again pulsing to life. "I never signed up for this crap!" he growled. As he watched his friends' varying (and in some cases menacing) reactions, Cloud quickly hung his head and gave up. "Okay, fine, whatever..." he groaned as he held his aching head. "Just get me a chocobo and let's get this farce over with..."

"Oh, oh, um... um... oh, God in heaven help me..." Coates' reaction told the story that there was still more to it, and Tifa's eye began to twitch in response. With Barret's Gun-arm placed flat on his belly, a quaking Coates quickly rustled through his suit and removed a cell phone. It would only be by God's good grace if he could manage to dial it. "You... you need more than a chocobo. Y-You have to get one somehow, and that costs money... and you also need a... a manager... a-and that's-" he squeaked.

A furious Tifa brutally shoved Barret out of the way, caught Coates by the scruff of the neck, lifted him off the ground, and slammed him against the wall. "Okay, that's it, I've had enough, you jackass!" she yelled loudly. Coates started to nearly foam at the mouth and Tifa's piercing eyes narrowed enough to moisten his pants too. "This has gone on long enough. Either you get us a chocobo and a manager or I rearrange your junk!" Tifa declared, further terrifying Coates. "Make your choice quick or I'll make it for you!" snarled Tifa.

After Tifa dropped him Coates nervously dialed a number on his phone, gave the sign of the cross, and put the cell to his ear. "Ester? Coates. I, um... Oh, God, please help me. We need some chocobos ASAP and a manager stat. Do you have an hour or two? I kind of... um... Just bring someone and save me! It's on my dime, whatever it takes!" he begged. Glancing back at Tifa's burning rage, his heartbeat accelerated. "Bring the best of the best! Please! I don't want to die before I get a raise! Dio promised me two months ago, that lousy... Just get here now!" squealed Coates.

Scene Four

Chocobo racing at the Gold Saucer was more than a sport; it was a chance for those down below to win their freedom. Normally they would have to pay for both a chocobo and manager, something which is highly unlikely for a condemned criminal, but in some cases they were provided with amateur trainers and freshly trained chocobos. Naturally that meant that, unless they were natural jockeys, they were doomed to rot in the desert prison forever. Ester was an experienced chocobo breeder, one of the Gold Saucer's finest. After Coates called, or rather begged for help and offered to do whatever she wanted, Ester agreed to become Cloud's jockey. During the trip to the elevator leading up to Chocobo Square, Cloud explained what had happened to Ester.

"Oh, man! That's horrible!" Ester exclaimed after hearing of Dyne's involvement and the party's false imprisonment. Cloud's explanation, and Dyne's final moments, convinced her. "Let me talk to Dio when we get up above and I'll smooth things out. But, rules are rules: You have to win the race to win your freedom. Have you ever ridden a chocobo?"

"Yeah," said Cloud with a shrug of his shoulders. "To actually get here we went by chocobo through most of the eastern continent, so I have a lot of experience riding a chocobo. But that doesn't mean I can race one. Do you have any pointers?" he wondered. "I mean, it's not like I do this kind of thing for sport..."

"Don't you worry for a minute!" said Ester as she tapped her chest proudly. "I've got the best trained chocobos in the Saucer and you ought to more or less skate by! Well... There is one ace jockey called Joe with his chocobo Teioh, who typically wins whatever race he enters and he's on the roster today..." Seeing Cloud's face fall, Ester quickly patted him on the shoulder. "I have an idea, so don't worry!" she laughed. "I can't say I'm a hundred percent certain, but... Trust me, 'kay? I think I've got this figured out..."

The elevator ride from the desert prison opened up into the chocobo jockey lounge itself, where a half dozen riders sat at a poker table playing a game when Cloud and Ester entered. Though they had a slight interest at first, the jockeys quickly returned to their game with a shrug. As Ester lead Cloud through the lounge, a lone figure stood out: a black haired slickster with a leather jacket and a bandana, who leaned against the wall smoking a cigarette.

"Cloud, meet Joe!" Ester said joyfully as she pointed to the slickster. Cloud jumped immediately upon realizing that this man was the jockey Ester had been talking about - the one who always won. Joe took a puff of his cigarette, exhaled, and shook Cloud's hand. "This is an up and comer, and... Well... Can I talk to you privately for a second? I want to ask you a very important question..."

As Ester politely pulled Joe to the side to talk, Cloud loitered around the area and observed the other jockeys. Most of them were oddly small, but muscular, most with facial hair and the majority of them smoking cigarettes. They turned a cold shoulder to Cloud, who for his part didn't really care in the first place. He wasn't there to make friends, and his lifted middle finger indicated his own disdain for the jockeys.

"Oh, so that's how it is? Quite the pickle he's in..." Joe wondered, a twinkle in his eye. As Ester nodded, he took a drag of his cigarette, exhaled, and put it out in a nearby ash tray. He turned to Cloud with a menacing glare, one that slowly melted into a grim smile. "Gotcha. I'll do my very best, I promise. The outcome of this race has just been determined..." he said darkly.

Cloud swallowed hard. The idea that the top chocobo ace was going to go all out on him sent a chill up his spine, and his only prayer was that Ester's chocobos were good enough to pull a rabbit out of the proverbial hat.

Scene Five

The Gold Saucer's chocobo race track was a long, complex course that incorporated a number of different atmospheres and presented a series of obstacles. From the initial forest roads to the psychedelic outer space themes of the final stretch, no two races were the same. In fact, the traps and blocks were typically randomized to ensure fairness to all participants. The basic course was the same, but in some cases the platforms could morph and there were snares designed to catch an amateur jockey unaware.

Cloud's competition was made up of five chocobos: yellow (his), blue, red, green, and Joe's jet black chocobo Teioh. Each of the other three jockeys turned their noses up at Cloud as he settled in at the starting line; Cloud proudly told them all off one by one, sometimes with gestures and other times by just telling them to kiss his ass. Variety, after all, is the spice of life. There was no middle ground - he had to win. The gravity of the situation wasn't lost on Cloud, but the experience of the other jockeys was daunting and Joe's reputation preceded him. As the counter started, Cloud's nerves stiffened into resolve and, by the time the start was announced, his will was set in stone: Win. No matter what.

As the flag fell and the race started Cloud found himself at the back of the line, with Joe's black chocobo far ahead. The other three jockeys pulled out far ahead, but Cloud's chocobo seemed to double in speed as they reached the end of the forest course and into a crystalline world filled with light and color. Ester's training made it clear that, even with an amateur rider, it could compete with the best of the best.

The crystalline world was a long, winding path through a storybook cascade of colors and crystals. When the other jockeys began to lose ground they began to crowd in front of Cloud, trying to impede his progress. That strategy backfired when the stars above solidified into crystal spikes and began to drop, forcing all the riders to take evasive maneuvers. One by one the crystals fell to the ground and shattered to create a rain storm of multicolored gemstones.

It may have been Ester's chocobo in control at first, but Cloud swiftly caught on to the mechanics of the system and began to gain ground on the other jockeys. As the crystals dropped and struck the ground they shattered into pieces in an attempt to catch the jockeys off guard, and it worked when the green chocobo was nailed by a piece of shrapnel and dropped to the shimmering road below. Cloud narrowly managed to evade the same trap and continued on, reaching parity with the blue and red chocobos with Joe's black chocobo continuing to dominate the race.

What awaited in the next course seemed to be a deep dive into the darkened ocean. Lined along the track fish and other marine life swam and slithered as if they were in a titanic aquarium, and the road began to moisten before finally engulfing the chocobos completely in water. Surprisingly to Cloud, however, each of the chocobos continued to run unabated as if the water didn't exist, though bubbles of oxygen bubbled from their beaks. Here Ester's chocobo hit its stride, passing by the blue and red chocobos if only by a narrow margin, infuriating the two jockeys and prompting them to speed up their steeds.

They went into an underground wonderland for the next course, gemstones gleaming all throughout the cavernous roads they now rode upon. Stalactites lined the top rows of the cave and stalagmites jutted from the ground in a sort of zig zagging course all its own that forced Cloud to hold the reins tight and navigate as carefully as possible. Here the red chocobo pulled ahead of Cloud and made a mad dash for Joe's chocobo. By now the blue chocobo had fallen hopelessly behind, ensnared in the stalagmite traps and was forced to stop its pursuit.

While the red chocobo's jockey arrogantly turned to flip Cloud off, the stalactites began to quake and rumble before shattering into spikes that rained down on the track. The red chocobo soon went down from the raining spires, leaving Cloud to go full speed through the caves just a bit behind Joe. As the red jockey cursed and fell from his steed, he narrowly avoided being speared by a stalactite and continued on. From the darkened cave the track shifted to a marvelous rainbow world, all the colors of the rainbow shimmering in order through the entire track that seemed to glimmer with stars and planets shining from afar. That turned out to be literal as the rainbow bridge opened into what seemed like outer space. As Cloud's chocobo first struck the starry road the stars brightened and almost seemed to break apart into fireworks.

Cloud's chocobo continued to gain ground, passing from planet to planet and throughout the galaxy towards the finish line. Joe's black chocobo, however, was still quite a ways ahead and the sight of a gigantic moogle's mouth opening signaled the end of the road. With all the effort his chocobo could muster, Cloud continued to accelerate but was just barely behind the black chocobo as they approached the finish line. To Cloud's astonishment, Joe pulled back on the reins and his black chocobo skidded to a stop, allowing Cloud's chocobo to break through the stream of stars and thus signaling his victory. The crowd went wild and fireworks burst open from high up above. Cloud, stunned, whirled around to meet Joe's grin and the jockey gave a two-fingered salute as Cloud and his chocobo came to an abrupt halt. What started as a thin smirk broke into a full-fledged cheer of victory and he lifted his arm high in victory.

Scene Six

With the race over and the trophies distributed, the jockeys returned with Cloud to their lounge. They had changed their tune quick enough, and the bandaged-up riders congratulated Cloud on his marvelous victory. Cloud shared a victory drink with them, but his attention turned to Joe as he lit up a cigarette and their eyes met. The two shared a smile, Joe returned to his smoke, and Cloud turned to find himself in front of Ester. She gave a beaming smile, held out her palm, and they high fived triumphantly.

"Great job out there!" Ester cheered as she poured a drink for herself. After she took a sip she placed the glass down and rustled through her clothing before withdrawing a small envelope that she handed to Cloud. "Dio asked me to give this to you. After I explained everything, and I mean everything," she laughed, "he agreed to get your friends out of the desert prison pretty quickly."

A smiling Cloud took a shot of his own liquor before ripping open the letter's seal and drawing the letter out for him to read. Despite Dio's unsophisticated appearance, his handwriting was quite impeccable and almost too proper for Cloud to translate.

Hey, buddy! Ester explained everything to me, and I apologize for accusing you guys of being murderers and all. I gave the go-ahead to Coates down below to bring your friends up first-class, and ASAP. But man, you guys put him through the wringer! By the time that lady friend of yours let go of him the poor son of a gun looked like he was going to have a heart attack! Anyway, like I said, you guys earned a full pardon and are free to go whenever you like. In fact, I asked your friend in pink to pick up a little bonus I gave you guys and she said she would call you as soon as she could. I hope I can see you in action sometime at the Arena!

Cloud triumphantly folded up Dio's letter and put it in his pocket. With everyone safe, they were free to continue their pursuit of Sephiroth on the western continent. Another notable point was that Tifa finally surrendered a very distressed Coates back to his office, where Dio also provided a group of carpenters to reconstruct the office she'd decimated. To Cloud's surprise, his cell phone began to ring loudly. With a cocky grin, he clicked it open and lifted it to his ear.

"CLOUD!! You did it!" Aerith's scream knocked Cloud's head away from the phone, nearly causing him to drop it before he composed himself and returned it to his ear. "Um... maybe I was a bit too excited? Sorry. But you've got to see what Dio gave us! It's some sort of weird buggy thing that can cross deserts and rivers, so we can get through the Corel desert and keep going! Cait Sith's got a surprise, too! And... well..." A pause quieted the line, causing Cloud to cock his head in confusion. "Everyone's grateful, you know? I've got to say it 'cause you earned this big time. I owe you a big kiss when you get back... See you at the bottom of the Saucer!" she trilled as the line went dead.

As Ester turned to lead him to his friends, Cloud noticed a small note in red that slipped out of the envelope. He read it quickly and was taken aback, his hands shaking when he discovered Dio's final goodbye. At least now they had a clue, but even just reading his name made Cloud's blood boil. And his final words indicated even more complications...

I met Sephiroth a bit before you guys dropped in. He said he was going south, to a village called Gongaga. The buggy I gave you will take you across the river there. Shinra's got an old reactor in Gongaga, so they might have some thugs waiting. Be careful. I hear they've got some new folks that call themselves Turks visiting for an inspection. Those guys are bad news! Try and stay out of their way.

Author's Notes

God, this was a chore. Not so much the Dyne part, but I have no experience with any sort of racing and trying to write the race pissed me off 'cause I had zero idea of what I was trying to convey. If you'll notice this is also one of the shorter chapters I've written lately. When I wrote the initial notes a while back I thought I'd have at least half as much more material than what I actually put out. I guess the Dyne segment went quicker than I was anticipating. Torturing Coates was fun, though... Initally it was just threats, but by the end Tifa more or less totally broke his will, and seeing him squirm - even if it's not strictly canon - was my favorite part of the chapter.

Next up is Cosmo Canyon by way of Gongaga. But first I've got a new, original chapter that I've designed just to bridge a couple things, like an intro to a power-up and to expand on the buggy. It's obviously not canon, but hopefully someone gets something out of it. I'll be bringing back Cloud's Ifrit summon materia for this chapter, a.k.a. the one he got from the Jenova debacle. I wasn't expecting it, but whatever. This whole thing is improvised as it is. I'd like to provide some surprises every now and then.