Cloud's landing on the hard, packed sand of the huge desert they landed in was enough to badly bruise him. The huge fall from the Golden Saucer above must have knocked hard, and with the robot's claws digging into his arms. The large, silent machine suddenly dropped Cloud onto the ground, backed away, and jumped back into the clouds.
Cloud was still for a moment, ignoring the wind as it kicked small clouds of sand in his face. Lying on his back in the boiling hot sun, Cloud began to realize how impossible all of this was beginning to seem.
If they had never gone up to the Golden Saucer, none of this would have happened. But what if they hadn't? What might have happened then? Would Barret have gunned down all those people? No, it couldn't have been him…could it?
As Cloud's mind wandered, he began less and less to notice how hot it was in the middle of this junkyard in the desert, or how itchy the sand in his shirt collar was.
Eventually, Cloud drifted off into sleep, and the elements of the weather were nothing next to his exhaustion. Images flashed in his mind, memories long forgotten flashed through the thoughts in his mind and filled him with heart-rending sorrow…
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"Cloud!? Are you crazy!? What the hell were you thinking, bringing Tifa to a place like this!? She could have been killed!" snapped Tifa's father, filled with overwhelming rage.
"My mother's name is Jenova. She died giving birth to me," said Sephiroth, to Cloud.
"Haven't you ever had the feeling that something is calling you? Or that you had to visit some certain place?" asked Hojo, curiously, a dark glint in his eyes.
"Someday I'll get out of Midgar, and find my Promised Land," said Aeris.
"WHAT YOU PURSUE SHALL BE YOURS. BUT YOU WILL LOSE SOMETHING DEAR," said Cloud, reading the fortune.
"In my veins courses the blood of the Ancients. I am one of the rightful heirs to this Planet!" exclaimed Sephiroth, laughing his terrible laugh that sent a nasty shiver down Cloud's spine...
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Cloud awoke suddenly in horror, and he quickly stood up, but to his surprise, he found himself looking at Aeris, who looked both worried and concerned. Cait Sith stood not too far behind her, looking nervous.
"Are you alright?" asked Aeris, gently.
Cloud nodded slowly, unable to voice any of the horrors that had just filled his mind.
"Where are we?" asked Cloud, looking around at the vast desert, which seemed to stretch for many countless miles, but he did see a junkyard and a huge building, and some old, tacky, shabby houses nearby.
"A desert prison…Corel prison," replied Cait Sith, shortly, stepping slowly towards them. He seemed very troubled.
"A desert prison?" asked Cloud, bewildered.
"Yeah, a natural prison in the middle of the desert, surrounded by hundreds of miles of quicksand. I heard that once you get in, you never get out. But a long time ago, there was one special exception…" explained Cait Sith, calmly.
But before he could say anymore, Aeris suddenly let out a startled gasp. Wheeling around, Cloud turned and spotted Barret standing just ahead of them, his back to them.
Since he was a man with a gun-arm and the only one around, it seemed more than likely that Barret had killed all those soldiers and innocent people at the Golden Saucer.
"Hey, Barret!" called Aeris, but Barret didn't even glance at them, nor did he move either. Cait Sith, Cloud and Aeris quickly ran over to him.
"Barret, did you really do it?" asked Cloud, cautiously, but Barret spun sharply around to face them, and stepped back from them, a menacing look on his face.
"Stay back! This is something that I've just gotta deal with by myself. So just leave me alone," snarled Barret, and he ran off, along the desert prison.
"That's one of your friends? He sure looks dangerous," said Cait Sith, nervously, and the robotic Mog below him gave a pitiful whimper. Cloud ignored them both.
"Cloud, what should we do now? Barret's not his normal self right now, he might do something crazy unless we stop him…" said Aeris, looking worried.
Cloud nodded grimly in agreement, and they all walked on, across the Corel Desert Prison.
Cloud, Aeris and Cait Sith walked along the prison. There were more people lying dead on the hard sand and they also had bloody gunshot wounds in them. They came to a tacky prison house and they went in.
Suddenly, Barret burst straight into the room through another door, looking extremely furious.
"Didn't I tell you all not to come here!?" snapped Barret, clearly enraged as he glared hard at them.
Suddenly, he raised his gun-arm, and he aimed it right at them. Cloud and Aeris both looked shocked and in disbelief. Cait Sith looked completely terrified.
"H-Hey, wait a sec! J-Just hold on for a second! We just want to talk, that's all! You'll understand if you just hear us out!" shouted Cait Sith, frightened.
Barret then suddenly fired his gun-arm. Several times without stopping.
Cait Sith, Cloud and Aeris covered their faces with their hands, it was the only thing they could do other than scream, but after they lowered their hands, they discovered that they were completely unhurt.
They turned around, and discovered that a man behind them was now lying dead on the floor with bullet wounds, and Barret hadn't been shooting at them, but at the man who was now dead, who had apparently been hiding behind an old, worn looking couch in the small room.
"I didn't want none of ya to get involved…" said Barret, shaking his head wearily, all trace of anger now gone, but none of them could understand why he had just done that, unless he really was the murderer behind all the Golden Saucer and Desert Prison massacres…
Just then, Red XIII, Yuffie and Tifa all ran into the house, having heard the gunshots from outside, and they stood in the room, facing Barret like the others were doing. There was silence for a moment, and then Aeris spoke up first.
"Hey, that's Cloud's line. It's too dangerous. I can't get you involved, blah, blah, blah…" said Aeris, with clear exasperation, and Cloud gave her a slightly annoyed look in response.
"Yeah, we're already involved in this. We saw you come in this house and we hurried here. So come on, Barret. Just tell us what's going on already," said Tifa, stubbornly.
"You guys…" said Barret, warningly, a low and menacing growl in his tone, but no one backed down.
"I heard that the murders at the Battle Arena in the Golden Saucer were done by a man with a gun-arm. Was that…you?" asked Red XIII, curiously, and everyone waited breathlessly to hear Barret's answer.
Barret hesitated for a long moment, and then shook his head firmly and finally answered.
"No, there's…there's another man…that got a gun grafted into one of his arms willingly too. It all started four years ago, at the time of Corel's destruction. Before it happened, I was on my way home with Dyne after visiting the Mako Reactor…" said Barret, his mind flashing back to that scene as he explained it to the others.
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Just outside of North Corel, along the roller coaster-like train track path that led to the town, Barret and Dyne were casually walking back to the town, when the village headsmen suddenly ran up to Dyne and Barret, looking extremely terrified and alarmed.
"Barret! Dyne! Come quick! The village is being attacked! It's Shinra Soldiers!" shouted the village headsmen, urgently, overwhelming terror on his face and in his tone of voice.
"WHAT!?" roared Barret, in complete shock and disbelief that was also etched all over Dyne's face as well.
Both frantic with alarm and anxiety, Barret and Dyne quickly ran to a view where they could clearly see the whole town of Corel.
The whole town was on fire and a big line of smoke was coming from the flames like a gigantic bonfire. Even from here, Barret and Dyne could feel the intense heat of the massive flames as they consumed the entire town of Corel.
"W-What the hell happened…?" gasped Barret, in disbelief, speechless, stunned and hurt to see his hometown like this.
Barret's shock and disbelief soon gave way to murderous rage. He was then shaking in anger. Then he suddenly thumped a rock in extreme anger, making it crumble to pieces.
Dyne quickly knelt beside him, his face filled with overwhelming fear and despair, not for himself, but for his home and his family as the flames raged on in the distance.
"Hey, Barret! It's not over yet! Everyone's waiting! Come on, let's go back to the village!" shouted Dyne, frantically.
Barret nodded, filled with grim determination, and he and Dyne started to run back to the village of Corel before it was too late to save their homes and their families too. The village headsmen was still watching them on the bridge, looking very afraid and frantic indeed.
"Barret! Dyne! Quick, save the village before it's too late!" shouted the village headsmen, urgently.
Suddenly, Scarlet and four Shinra soldiers showed up on the bridge. Scarlet quickly pulled out a shotgun and shot the village headsmen point-blank in the face, killing him instantly in a shower of blood.
Then, the four Shinra soldiers suddenly fired their guns at Barret and Dyne. Dyne quickly got out of the way of their shots just in time, but Barret had struggled to dodge their shots, being much slower due to his weight.
"Come on, Barret! We've got to hurry, we've got to get there right NOW!" shouted Dyne, urgently.
Barret nodded, furious with himself for wasting so much time already, and he quickly ran over to Dyne.
Barret and Dyne made their way to a cliff, and along it was the quickest and only way now to Corel village, as Scarlet and the Shinra soldiers blocked the other route.
Barret and Dyne stood on the cliff, but the four Shinra soldiers were still firing at them, but they had poor aim and were missing badly. Scarlet was now laughing cruelly and scornfully at them, shaking her head. Dyne turned to face Barret.
"Barret! You stay here!" ordered Dyne, still frantic with anxiety and desperation.
"Shut up!" snapped Barret, refusing to be left behind and not help him. Scarlet walked right over to the Shinra soldiers.
"You can shoot at them all day and never hit them with such pathetic aim like that," said Scarlet, icily.
Scarlet suddenly got her gun out and she shot one of the Shinra soldiers, killing him instantly with another shower of blood. The other three soldiers looked at her with overwhelming fear and horror. Scarlet laughed cruelly.
"Stop playing around and cover me!" ordered Scarlet.
The three soldiers stepped in front of Scarlet at once, covering her from being attacked and they fired at Barret and Dyne even more than before and this time, their aim was far better, and on target.
"Watch out!!" screamed Dyne, suddenly as the bullets flew straight towards them.
Dyne quickly moved right in front of Barret and blocked a bullet from hitting Barret. The bullet hit Dyne in his left arm instead, breaking it and badly wounding it, and the force of the bullets sent him flying off the cliff edge.
Horrified and alarmed, Barret quickly grabbed Dyne before he could fall. Barret held onto Dyne with his right arm, while Dyne held onto Barret with his right arm, although his other arm was badly wounded, and blood dripped from it down to the large canyon below.
"Dyne! Hang on! Listen to me! You're coming back to the village, you hear!?" yelled Barret.
"Yeah…I…I ain't…letting go. We're both…going back to the town. Everyone's…waiting there for us. Eleanor…Marlene…they're all waiting for us…" said Dyne.
Suddenly, the Shinra soldiers fired more than ever and several bullets hit Barret's right arm, badly wounding it and instantly breaking it. His arm felt so horribly painful that Barret screamed in agony and accidentally let go of Dyne.
With a startled cry of surprise and fear, Dyne fell many feet, down the cliff, until he vanished from sight and hit the hard, sandy ground with a loud thud at the bottom.
The flashback ended and Barret explained more about what happened to Cloud and the others in the present day at the Corel Desert Prison.
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"From then on, I couldn't use my right arm no more. I was depressed for a while. But then I threw away my permanently broken artificial arm, and I got this gun grafted into the slump of my wrist instead. Got a new right arm to get revenge on Shinra, who took everything away from me, Dyne, and all the other townspeople too. Back then, I heard the doctor say that there was just one other man who got the same operation as me. But his was the left arm, and he had a shotgun, while I got a chain machine gun," explained Barret.
"But…if he really did survive the fall, Dyne's injury back then was exactly the same as yours, right? So it must have been him that had the other operation," said Aeris, thoughtfully.
"Yeah, that's right! And Shinra deceived him too. He'll probably join us to fight against Shinra," said Tifa, hopefully, not understanding why Barret looked so grim about it.
Barret sighed wearily and shook his head, looking both doubtful and sorrowful as well.
"I wouldn't bet on it, not after all those murders he might have committed at the Golden Saucer. But no matter what, I've gotta apologise to Dyne before I can rest in peace. And that's why…I've gotta go alone," said Barret, quietly.
There was a long silence until Cloud snorted loudly, taking everyone aback.
"Do whatever you want. Is that what you want to hear? Well forget it, I can't let you do it. Because, if you die on me, I'm going to have nightmares about it for a very long time. So I'm going too, to watch out for you," said Cloud, firmly.
Everyone, especially Barret, seemed very taken aback indeed, and rather startled by Cloud's words. He was beginning to sound…as if he cared…
"Barret, this isn't the end," said Aeris, quickly, breaking the startled silence.
"Weren't you going to save the Planet?" added Tifa, with a nod at Aeris as she spoke to Barret.
"Shit! Tifa, you ought to know that by now!" shouted Barret, irritably. Tifa was unfazed by his outburst.
"That's alright. You know, I'm not so different from you in that respect," said Tifa.
"That's easier to understand. It's you who has to take care of this, Barret," said Aeris.
"So, there it is, Barret. So, I guess it will be Barret going, along with me, and…" said Cloud, trying to decide…
"Fortune's good! Everything is perfect!" exclaimed Cait Sith, suddenly, looking very relieved indeed, that Barret was not the crazed killer.
Yuffie, Tifa and Red XIII all spun around and faced Cait Sith in surprise, having not noticed him before.
"Um…what's this?" asked Tifa, pointing to Cait Sith.
"Why hello there. What was your name again?" asked Cait Sith, cheerfully.
"Who…what the heck are you?" asked Yuffie, bewildered, as she stared at Cait Sith in astonishment.
"My name's Cait Sith. I'm a fortune telling machine from the Golden Saucer. I'm basically a robotic cat on a big, stuffed Moogle," said Cait Sith.
"Cait Sith, these three are Tifa, Yuffie and Red XIII. They're also friends of ours," said Cloud, pointing them out.
"Charmed, I'm sure," replied Cait Sith, bowing politely.
"If we're gonna go, then why the hell ain't we gone yet!?" shouted Barret, impatiently.
"Hmm…shall I go with you?" asked Red XIII.
"I wonder if Dyne will join us?" said Aeris, thoughtfully.
"Be careful…" said Tifa, anxiously.
Cloud decided to go with Tifa this time, and he, Tifa and Barret all quickly walked out of the house and they walked along the Desert Prison, while Cait Sith, Red XIII, Yuffie and Aeris waited for them.
"So, they got all of you too, huh? I was getting really worried when we had gone everywhere in the Golden Saucer, and didn't run into any of you guys," said Aeris.
"How embarrassing that was. I can't believe they just dropped us down here like that. I'm just a fortune telling machine, not a murderer. Do I even look like a murderer?" asked Cait Sith, incredulously.
"Yeah, like anyone of us do? Well…Cloud; maybe. Tifa; not really. Barret; definitely. I'm just a kid, Aeris is a flower girl, and Red XIII looks like such a nice puppy," said Yuffie, chuckling.
Red XIII growled low in his throat, but said nothing.
"So, did you all see those Shinra soldiers too? Do any of you guys have any idea about why Shinra would send their soldiers to be at the Golden Saucer?" asked Aeris, curiously.
"They had to be looking for Sephiroth. But I don't know why they would have any reason to think that he would be there," replied Red XIII, puzzled.
"Yeah, it's not like he's going to take a pit stop at an amusement park on his trip to the Promised Land. He's not exactly going to waltz on in and say, 'hi everyone, I want to try that game with the cute little Moogle', and then be on his way, is he?" said Yuffie, sarcastically. Cait Sith chuckled.
"I bet you he wouldn't have to wait in line at the Speed Square. Oh, its Sephiroth, the war hero turned psychopath! That's a pretty big sword you got there, and sharp too. You can cut in front of me, if you like. No, I meant go in front of me in the line, you know," joked Cait Sith.
Yuffie and Aeris both giggled with laughter.
"Hey, Cait Sith, how is it that you work exactly? I mean, are you running on some kind of programme, or is there someone controlling your actions, or even someone inside that big Moogle you're standing on?" asked Yuffie, curiously.
"Hey, hey, hey, it's the height of bad manners to ask a machine how it works. It's like asking me why you're still alive," said Cait Sith, shaking a robotic furry finger at her.
"Oh…sorry, I guess," replied Yuffie, with a shrug, although she was rather puzzled by his answer.
"I know why they were looking for Sephiroth at the Golden Saucer. Before Dio sent me down to this prison just before Cloud, I overheard him saying that…" began Aeris, but she was interrupted as Yuffie snorted indignantly.
"Damn that Dio! I hate that guy already! He really needs to put some clothes on or something," said Yuffie, shaking her head in disgust. Aeris giggled.
"So you met him too? Anyway, I overheard him saying that a man had come looking for something called the Black Materia. He said that the man had long silver hair and was wearing a black cape," explained Aeris.
Everyone else stared at her in shock.
"So…he WAS actually here after all…but, I've never heard of the Black Materia before…" said Red XIII, thoughtfully.
"Neither have I. And I'm an worldwide expert on the subject of Materia. And besides, Sephiroth's just an all-powerful wacko, right? So what exactly would this Black Materia do that would be so special to him, and what would he want with it?" asked Yuffie, thoughtfully and curiously.
"I don't know. But I'm sure that the Ancients had all kinds of Materia that no one else has ever discovered. And to me, the Black Materia somehow seems sort of…scary…even sinister. And dangerously powerful too. I can't say why exactly, but that's just how it feels, or at least that's the way I sense it…" said Aeris, anxiously.
"Do you think that the Planet might be trying to tell you something, then?" asked Red XIII, curiously.
"I'm not sure…It's just been so quiet lately. As if it's…hiding from something…" replied Aeris, thoughtfully.
No one else knew what to say or think about that…