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LOL! I just realized that you could totally have skipped this last chapter and the story probably would still make perfect since. That's okay though. Character development is pretty important to me when I write.
On with the show! Chapter 4 begins now!
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"Remember how after the end of the war we all went our different ways? Yuffie back to Utai, Cid back to Rocket Town, you, me and Tifa back to Midgar, RedXIII back to Cosmo Canyon, Vincent to who knows where, and Cait Sith to the museum?" (No one exactly knew what had become of Cait Sith's robotic body. As a result we had all come up with our own ideas on just what happened to him. Barrett's was that his body is now locked up somewhere in what's left of the Shrina building, which he now affectionately calls the Museum. Personally, I think that it's still around somewhere in the slums helping out the poor people in rebuilding their damaged homes, but the truth is no one has seen him for weeks.) "Well, something I don't think you know is, just before we all split up, Cid asked Tifa to come with him back to Rocket Town. That's right. Cid wanted to take Tifa home. That son of a &%# actually thought she would come with him. Cid said he had good intentions, but honestly Cloud, do you think he had anything besides a one night stand in his mind for her? Hell no. I went and talked to Tifa after I found out. And here's what's crazy Cloud, she was thinking of saying yes. I knew that she wanted to say no. I could see it in her eyes. I even asked her if she wanted to say no. You know what she said Cloud? She said she did want to say no, but that she didn't have a damn clue what she'd do with her life if she said no."
I knew what he was getting at. "She's been awful depressed lately, hasn't she? Depressed over me." "Damn right Cloud," Barrett said angrily. "It sounds to me like you've already noticed, but she loves you. She loves you with all her heart and it's driving her crazy. I've heard her say it in her sleep. Damn it Cloud! Why the hell haven't you done something about it? You've never even asked her out!" I saw his point but really didn't care to argue about it. I wanted to focus more on her dreams, not her feelings towards me. Maybe that's what Barrett was getting at though. Did he come out here to talk to me how she's feeling? How in her dreams she professes her undying love for me and he thinks it's high time I do something about it? I wanted to yell at him right then. To tell him to butt out of my business, just like I did to RedXIII, but I chose not to. I wanted to know more before I did anything rash like that. So I kept my mouth shut and listened.
Barrett waited a minute to see if I would say anything back to him. Realizing that I wouldn't he continued with his story. "Anyway, I managed to convince Tifa to say no, to convince her that her life wasn't worth throwing away to some &$% ass-hole just because the love of her life doesn't see her for what she's worth." I couldn't help but sneer at that jab. But again, I held back my anger. "I can't but help seeing her face Cloud. She was crying when I finally convinced her to say no to him. Crying like a puppy dog. Come to think of it, that's what it is. You've got her on a leash Cloud."
"You said that she was dreaming about some materia. What is that all about?" I said. I had had enough of his preaching so I, as calmly as I could, changed the subject. I think I did a pretty good job. Both at restraining my voice, and changing the subject. "Well, this is also interesting. Sometimes she dreams about Aerieth. Not near as often about you, but sometimes she's in there. I don't blame her at all for that. I do it too sometimes, how Sephiroth came from the sky and pierced her chest all the way through, pinning her into the floor. But for Tifa, it's hardly ever about that. It's almost always one of two things. The first is to her a nightmare…well I suppose their both nightmares to her, but the first has something to do with the life stream creating a new body for Aerieth, and how she comes on Tifa's wedding day and steals you, her groom, away from her. The other, doesn't have anything to do with you, Cloud. Instead she's walking up a staircase covered in flowers. She's running as fast as she can from something, and when she gets to the top of the stairs, there's Aerieth, holding a red materia she's never seen before. The moment she grabs it though, Sephiroth appears and kills her, just as he did back in the Forgotten City. She dies obviously, but as she dies, Jenova appears and says something like…oh man…this part is kind of new to me since she just told me about it last night…something like, He shall come again. Through the power of…something…he shall re-forge his own body, and …and….well I'm not the one who's having the dream so I can't explain it too well. Tifa can do a better job at…Cloud?"
I didn't notice that my jaw was open. "Cloud?" Barrett said shaking me. I didn't say anything. There were some differences in our dreams, but the parallels of the stairs, the flowers, the materia, Sephiroth and Aerieth, were all too much to be a coincidence. I snapped myself out of my little coma and stopped Barrett from shaking me. "This is bad, Barrett." "&% Cloud! OF COURSE IT IS! Tifa is goin nuts and you're the only one who can do a damn &% thing about it." "Well duh Barrett. I'm going to go talk with Tifa. I should have done it earlier, but now I have a good reason to talk to her. This is too much of a coincidence for their not to be some meaning behind our dreams…" Barrett was looking at me strangely. "Our dreams? I didn't have that freaky dream Cloud, it was Tifa who did, remember?" "Yes I know, Barrett, but…man…okay fine. I'll tell you. Just about every night for the past month I've had dreams about Aerieth and Sephiroth, as I'm sure we all have. But last night I had a dream that sounds strangely similar to what Tifa has been dreaming about recently. So much so that I don't think it's just a coincidence. Maybe the planet is trying to tell us both something…I wonder if RedXIII could shed some light on this…" Barrett eyed me closely, as if looking into my heart and seeing if I was still sane. After a moment he asked, "What does that dog have anything to do with this?" "Nothing, but I've always trusted him for his wisdom and intelligence. And besides, I ran into him earlier today and only ended up yelling at him for no good reason. I'm going to go find him and tell him about my…about our dreams actually. I'm going to take Tifa with me. Hopefully while were looking for him Tifa can explain the details of her dreams to me better." Barrett said nothing as I left him there in the garden.