A/N: Ah! Another week almost passed! Argy, but! I managed to finish this before lunch time! Hehe…

Thanks for reviewing! I actually feel bad I put Yuffie in such a horrible position. Don't worry though, Nanaki will save her! Whoo!

Omigosh! I was going to do that to Barret! Hehe, however, his part was supposed to come in later, but… I decided it's his turn to shine now. (thumbs up)

Disclaimer: FF7 doesn't belong to me… and so on and so forth.

Reveal Your True Eyes
Chapter Five

Our Paths Will Cross
"I don't care! I still want to see her!" -Barret

"Professor Hojo, please reconsider," Gast pleaded to his colleague. He followed Hojo as he began setting up an odd-looking contraption.

Hojo smirked in response and continued the setup of what appeared to be a laser.

Gast shook his head. "You've changed everything! Everything was peaceful until you arrived here! I'm telling you again… please reconsi-"

"Silence! You insolent swine!" Hojo snapped. "This is what I need to do. For the sake of all the civilians of this good-for-nothing world!"

"Hojo. What does erasing memories have to do with the sake of the world?"

Hojo turned and grinned. "Because, I love to see people suffer."

"You're still mad as ever!"

Completely ignoring Gast's last comment, he quickly made his way to the other side of the lab. After pressing a few buttons on his computer, a huge screen, revealing Nanaki and Aeris, suddenly appeared.

Gast widened his eyes. "No… what are you planning on doing with my daughter!"

"They're trying to interfere with my experimentations. I want to stop them." He narrowed his eyes at that. "However, they seem too strong for me. Perhaps I will… use someone."

"Stop this!"

"SILENCE! There is nothing for you to do now, Gast. No one can stop me."

"I could just leave anytime now, can't I?"

"Oh, no. I still need you… unless… you want to become one of my experiments, hm?"

The other scientist hung his head forward at that.

Hojo grinned. "Good. Now then, ready the laser. And get ready to cover your ears."

Barret shook the weird feeling out from his mind. The various voices surrounding him sounded so familiar. But, he couldn't figure out who they were. He had the sudden urge to yell 'SHUT UP' to them, but his body ached in places he thought never existed. He managed a twitch and the only noises that came out from his mouth were 'Nnn' and 'Guuuh'.

They were laughing now. Barret cringed his teeth together like a mad dog ready to attack his prey. The voices died down after a while, allowing a cool breeze to blow across the man's face. The feeling seemed to bring Barret's body back into motion. He managed another groan and finally twitched his eyes open. He saw nothing but blur.

Suddenly, the voices returned, only this time, he could finally see who was responsible for it.

A girl with brown hair leaned forward. She placed her luke warm hand over Barret's forehead and smiled.

"He should be alright now," she said to whoever was there.

Barret twitched his nose. "W-What?" he finally said.

"Whoaho!" a deep voice exclaimed. "It has spoken!"

A rather tubby figure snickered at that. "C'mon now, that's not nice, Biggs."

'B-Biggs…!'

Barret immediately sat up from his bed and stared at the three figures. They jumped back in shock at that. He couldn't believe it. Out of the whole Lifestream, he actually encountered his old friends in on try! He shook his head around and pointed to his old friends.

"J-Jessie… B-Biggs… W-Wedge… is… is it really… you guys?"

The men stared at each other and pinched Barret's cheeks.

"Hey!" Biggs smirked, "It's been forever, man!"

"Didn't think we'd see you so soon!" Wedge added.

"You guys…" Barret wiped the tears that were streaming down his face.

Jessie tilted her head. "…we've seen him before?"

Barret gasped and turned to the girl. "J-Jessie? It's me, Barret! From AVALANCHE?"

Jessie pouted at that. "I keep hearing, 'AVALANCHE' this! 'AVALANCHE' that! I'm telling you, I don't know what that is!"

Biggs gestured for her to exit the room. "Okay, okay, Jess. Is it okay if us guys talk for a while?"

She nodded and walked out of the room.

Barret quickly stood up from his bed and clenched his fist.

"What the hell is goin' on 'ere! Why can't she remember who I am!"

"Calm down, Barret!" Wedge hushed. "Don't let Jessie hear on this."

"What the crap for!"

Biggs leaned against a wall. "It's a long story," he paused for a while. "After what happened back in Midgar, we three headed straight for the Lifestream. Everything was normal, mind you. We spent a good couple of months trying to figure out what we were now."

Barret lifted an eyebrow. "What you were?"

He nodded. "Yeah, we weren't convinced enough that we were actually part of the Lifestream. But, there was one thing that convinced us enough."

"Which was?"

Biggs nudged Wedge's arm. He frowned and hung his head forward. "Barret… we saw your wife here."

Barret widened his eyes, but remained silent.

Wedge continued on, "We recognized her the minute we saw her. Of course, she didn't know who we were. But, after we told her that we were friends of yours, she couldn't help but talk about you. In fact, ever since she arrived in the Lifestream, she thought nothing but you."

"…M…Myrna?"

Biggs nodded. "Yes. Dude, she told us what happened to your home back then. I understand why you didn't want to bring it up."

"…I still despise those ShinRa…"

The tubby man nodded in agreement. "We all do."

"That's not all," Biggs closed his eyes and sighed. "Anyways, after we met with Myrna, we stayed with her in this same house for a while. Jessie became close with her so, they were stuck to each other like glue. A 'girl thing' or something, I dunno.

"A few months later, Jessie and Myrna were getting weird vibes all of a sudden. They claim that something was messing with their minds… important memories were being erased. After a while, their memories of us, AVALANCHE…everything they cherished… completely disappeared from their mind."

Barret shook his head. "No… w-what happened to Myrna?"

Wedge bowed his head forward. "To tell you the truth… we don't know. The last time we saw her, she was heading towards some forest. Something called the 'Lifestream Forest'."

"What the hell is that?"

"Don't know. But, I've heard people that it's really dangerous, and that no one comes back in their 'full forms'."

Barret stomped towards the door at that. "I don't know what the hell that means, but I'm going to look for her!"

Just when he reached the door, Biggs blocked his way. Barret gripped his huge fist on his shoulder, tightening his grip on it.

"Move, Biggs."

"I won't."

"MOVE!"

"Listen! Even if you find her… she won't remember you."

"I don't care! I still want to see her!"

He shoved his friend out of his way at that. As he made his way through the hallway, he stopped and turned to his friends.

"Hey, tell Jessie that it was good to see her." '…again.'

As soon as he made his way out of the house, an ear-splitting noise sounded off. Barret covered his ears as his eyes turned completely black. As the noise dimmed down, he quickly made his way towards Lifestream Forest.

"So this 'Barret' person…lost his friend after they fought with each other?"

Nanaki nodded his head. "Yes. There was nothing we could do at that time. He decided his own fate."

Aeris sighed to herself, placing her hands behind her back. "I see. Perhaps I will meet this 'Dyne' sometime?"

"Maybe."

Aeris smiled sweetly at that. "Is there anything else I should know about this 'Barret'?"

"Well, I've heard he had three friends, but they died after a fight with the ShinRa back in Midgar."

"Oh my. I do hope that Barret is alright with this?"

Nanaki smiled at her. "I'm sure he's fine. Although, he tries to hide the pain of losing his friends, he's strong. I don't think I would be able to hold the pain inside if I lost a friend of mine."

"…Red…"

The two travelers soon arrived at the Lifestream Forest. A dark green glow dimmed on and off from within the forest and the eerie silence caused the fur on Nanaki's back to literally stand upright. He crouched forward and growled. Aeris tilted her head in confusion.

"Is there something wrong, Red Thirteen?"

"I-I sense some great power flowing through. So… this is the Lifestream Forest."

The girl nodded her head. "Yes. After what happened not too long ago, many people fear that their fates would end mysteriously like what happened before."

Nanaki stood up and nodded at the forest. "We have no choice. My friends could be somewhere in or out of this forest. I must find them."

Aeris gripped her small backpack strap tightly at that. She nodded. "I'm ready. I, too, want to find them."

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Only a couple minutes have passed but there wasn't any sign of anything out of the ordinary. However, the dark green glow gave it such an eerie feeling. Nanaki and Aeris weren't exactly sure if they were going the right way. They had passed a couple of other paths, but they decided that going straight would lead them out.

"I'm so tired, Red Thirteen… may I rest for a while?"

"Well, alright. Just for a while, I guess."

Aeris sighed and sat on the ground. She stretched out her legs as Nanaki did the same also. She tilted her head, noticing a necklace tied around the creature's neck.

"My, that's a very lovely necklace, Red Thirteen."

Nanaki smiled. "You can call me Red, and, thank you. This is very special to me."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. It holds some kind of power. I'm still unknown as to what kind of powers it has exactly."

"Wow. I think it sounds interesting."

Nanaki placed his paw over the necklace. 'Powers that can change me into a human? Oh yeah… I wonder if Yuffie's alright…'

Just then, several gun shots sounded off not too far from where they were resting. Aeris quickly got to her feet and stood behind Nanaki. His tail lifted up as he growled loudly.

"Who's there!"

Finally, a large figure made his way through the tall trees. His black eyes shimmering in the dark green glow. He held his machine gun hand in the air.

Nanaki widened his eyes. "B-Barret? Barret! It's us!"

He didn't respond to that.

"That's Barret? Oh my," Aeris whispered to herself.

'Something's wrong with him. Is he the great power I sensed earlier?'

Reno tapped his foot against the walls of the cave. He and Rude have been waiting for Elena to arrive. It's only been half an hour, but it felt like an eternity.

Reno bit his lip and growled. "Damnit! Where is she?"

"Not sure. Perhaps we interrupted something she was currently doing?"

"Tch. Whatever."

Finally, a helicopter made it's way towards the cave. As soon as it landed, Elena quickly jumped out and ran towards the two men. She smiled sweetly and saluted to them.

"I'm here, sirs!"

The red head grunted and pulled Elena inside the cave. "Yeah, yeah. C'mon, we've got work to do."

They soon arrived at the three paths. Elena swiped her arm away from Reno and sighed.

"You still haven't told me why you called me here. Don't tell me you want me to enter one of those paths?"

"Uh… DUH! That's why we need three people," Reno pointed to one of the paths. "You go to the right, 'cause it's too narrow for us. And I-"

"Whoa, whoa. Wait! FIRST, tell me why we're here."

Rude adjusted his glasses. "We sensed something in here. We're not sure what, though."

The woman tapped her foot. "Oh yeah… I remember you guys talking about that. Reno, what is it?"

He shrugged. "I dunno! It might be something valuable, helpful, I dunno. I just can't leave without finding out!"

"You're probably being greedy again…"

"No! Look, we'll keep in touch so, keep your phones on alright?"

Everyone nodded and entered their path.

A/N: End of chapter five! Arg! I finally mentioned Nanaki's necklace! So… yes, it does serve a purpose in this story. You'll find out soon enough. Also, the lil Turks part, it may not be much now, but trust me. Their role will be much bigger later on. So now they're like the comic relief. Hehehe... Anyways, hope you enjoyed and please tell me how you thought of it!