His vision was blurry, he couldn't move but felt himself moving, like he was being dragged. He saw the outlines of two marines.

An intense pain was shooting from his right hand.

"Where are we taking this Freeman guy?" He heard one ask.

"Topside, for questioning." The other replied.

"What the hell for? We got him! Let's kill him now!"

"Uh and if they find the body?"

"Body? What body?"

The last thing he heard before he passed out was the two of them laughing maniacally.

"Gor…..don……..Gor….don!"

Distantly and faintly Gordon heard a voice calling out to him and saw the outline of a female figure. As he regained more consciousness the voice became clearer as well as the person.

"Gor..don, Gordon wake up!"

As Gordon's vision became more clearer the figure did as well, it was Tifa crouching over him. Cloud and Cait Sith were there as well.

"Gordon! Are you alright?" She asked.

Without even replying Gordon's adrenaline immediately shot up and his breathing became frantic as he quickly sat up and looked over to his right hand to see the chaingun he had was still on there.

"Oh! Oh thank god! Oh thank god." He said, laying back down and breathing several sighs of relief.

"It's still attached, it's still attached. Oh my god it's still attached."

"Gordon are you alright?" Tifa asked with a concerned look on her face.

"Huh?" He said, looking at Tifa as if noticing her for the first time.

"Oh it's nothing, just some PTSD I was going through, nothing to worry about." He said casually as he got up, Tifa got up with him but the concerned look she had didn't leave.

"Glad to see you're awake." Cloud said.

"Yup, back with the land of the living." Gordon replied.

He then looked around at his surroundings and noticed they were in a desert, there were some run down buildings nearby as well as rubble from them.

"Where are we?" Gordon asked.

"Corel prison." Cait Sith said, "This is where everybody who misbehaves at the Gold Saucer or North Corel gets sent. I heard once you get sent here there's no getting out."

"Oh fuck." Gordon said.

"But I did hear there's one way of getting out." said Cait Sith.

Before Cait Sith could say another word, gunshots were heard nearby.

"Sounded like it came from that way!" Cloud shouted, pointing south.

"Let's go!"

The four then ran to where they heard the shots and found Barret standing over a dead bandit that had bullet holes riddled through his body, smoke was emitting from his chaingun.

"Barret!" Tifa shouted, getting his attention.

"Oh, you're all still here." He said, as if he wanted them gone more than anything.

"Get the hell out of here alright. I have something I need to take care of."

"Woah, not so fast." Gordon said,

"Mind explaining what the hell happened at the Gold Saucer? I was literally accused of murdering a bunch of people because of my gun arm, something both you and I have. And I know for a fact I didn't do it."

Barret looked at Gordon, the expression on his face not too friendly.

"Watch your tone Freeman. All I'm gonna tell you is that I had nothing to do with it."

"Then who the fuck did it then?" Gordon retorted, the anger inside him beginning to build up,

"Because now we're fucking stuck in this god damn Mad Max prison with no way of getting out!"

Tifa decided it was best to interject before things got ugly.

"Gordon we shouldn't-"

Before Tifa could say another word, Barret stomped over to Gordon and got up in his face.

"I thought I told you to watch your tone."

"Or what?" Gordon shot back, showing no signs of backing down.

"Gonna beat me up, gonna shoot me? I'd like to see you try."

There was a sense of unstableness in his voice as he then held up his chaingun arm.

"See this? All it takes is one swing and you'll be flying back to Midgar."

Barret then grabbed the scuff of Gordon's HEV suit. Tifa then made haste to break the two apart.

"Don't make me do something I'm gonna regret Gordon! I'm not in the-"

"YOU THINK I'M FUCKING SCARED OF YOU!?" Gordon shouted in such a manner that everyone, including Barret, was taken aback and Tifa stopped in her tracks.

"YOU THINK AFTER EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED TO ME AT BLACK MESA I'D BE AFRAID OF A FUCKING GUY WITH A FUCKING CHAINGUN ON HIS ARM!? GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK! I'VE KILLED MY FAIR SHARE OF PEOPLE AND I'M NOT GONNA BACK DOWN BECAUSE YOU'RE IN A FUCKING SOUR MOOD! SO IF YOU WANNA THROW DOWN THEN LET'S GO!"

Tifa stood there, frozen with shock at Gordon's outburst. Cloud and Cait Sith also stood there, with Cloud basically ready to run in to break up a potential fight.

Barret meanwhile looked at Gordon, unsure if he wanted to hit him. Gordon was still huffing.

After a few tense moments, Barret let go of Gordon and turned around to walk away.

"The others are at a shack nearby. All of you better regroup and get the hell out of here."

Tifa wanted to say something to Barret, but remained silent as he walked away.

"Well you heard him." Gordon said in a ragged voice, "Let's go find the others and figure out how we're gonna escape this shithole."

Gordon then walked in one direction.

Cloud and Cait Sith then walked up by Tifa.

"Damn, what the hell happened to that guy?" Cait Sith asked, as he followed Gordon but kept his distance.

Cloud looked over at Tifa, who looked like she was holding back her sadness over the inability to break the argument up.

Cloud motioned to put his hand on her shoulder but she walked in Gordon and Cait Sith's direction before he could.

Then Cloud stood alone, and felt a sense of failure come up inside of him. He was the group's leader and he let them fight amongst each other.

'Not again.' He thought, as he ran to follow the rest.

Gordon was stomping in the direction that Barret said the rest of the party was holed up in, still pissed with his encounter with Barret.

'I'm not letting anyone push me around anymore, if any wants to fuck with Gordon Freeman they'll see what happens.'

As he was walking, a man he passed by who was leaning against a fence post began to follow him, laughing too.

He was also behind Gordon that was too close for comfort.

Without even hesitating Gordon stopped, turned around and unloaded his chaingun at the guys feet, who had to dance around to avoid being hit.

"Wanna get lit up? Then keep following me!" Gordon shouted threateningly.

The guy quickly ran off in another direction while screaming.

"Gordon!" Tifa shouted, running over to him.

"Why did you do that? He wasn't a threat."

"He could've been." Gordon said coldly,

"Let's keep going, the shack's up ahead."

"Gordon stop!" Cloud shouted, making his way to the two.

"Are you good?" He asked.

"Yeah, just fine. Let's go." Gordon said as he turned around to keep walking but Cloud grabbed his shoulder and spun him around to face him.

"No you're not." Cloud said,

"Why did you do that? He wasn't any threat to you."

"You saw how close he was following me, I wasn't gonna take any chances." Gordon said,

"Now are we done? Or are we gonna stay here and discuss ethics all day?"

"No, we're not done." Cloud said.

"What was that with Barret? You didn't need to get violent like that. And we can't have infighting especially at a time like this."

"He shouldn't have gotten in my face like that." Gordon replied sternly,

"And we're done discussing this, we have more important shit to worry about."

Without even giving Cloud a chance to reply Gordon shook Cloud's hand off of his shoulder and kept walking.

Cloud and Tifa looked at each other, as if looking for answers from the other on what to do with Gordon.

Before they could say anything Cait Sith walked by and they decided to look away.

"Whew, you got him sorted out yet?" He asked.

There was no response.

"Guess that's a no." Cait Sith said, as he walked in the shack's direction. Cloud and Tifa followed suit.

As the four entered the shack they saw everyone (minus Barret) inside.

Tommy got up from the chair he was sitting in.

"Mr. Freeman there you are!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah, hey Tommy." Gordon said.

"There you all are." Aerith said.

"You guys okay?" Cloud asked.

"We're fine, besides the run ins we had with bandits when we got here." Red XIII said.

"Yeah but you all should've seen Tommy! The way he moved and fought, I'm sure glad he's not with SOLDIER!" Yuffie exclaimed.

"Yeah that's Tommy for you." Gordon said, "By the way, how're you holding up Tommy?"

"I'm fine Mr. Freeman." Tommy replied,

"But it was awful, me and Ms. Gainsborough we're about to get on a ride and then guards handcuffed us and threw us down."

He frowned as he described what happened, he then pulled out his Glock from inside his lab coat.

"They let me keep my gun though."

"They pretty much let us keep all our weapons." Aerith said, "Guess they figured why not since we're down here."

"I guess. Have any of you figured a way out of here at all?" Cloud asked.

"We did find out one way." Red XIII said,

"We asked around and we're told to see a man named Mr. Coates, who told us our way out of here was by winning a Chocobo race."

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's do the damn race." Gordon said.

"We thought we could, but Coates said we needed permission from the 'Boss.' He didn't tell us who it was though."

"I know who it is." A voice said.

They all turned around to see Barret entering the shack, an unhappy look on his face. Gordon balled his fist.

He surveyed the room and when his eyes met Gordon his expression got angrier as he turned to look at Cloud.

"I thought I told you all to leave. I don't want any of you getting involved."

"You know we can't do that Barret, especially after everything that's happened." Aerith said.

"Whether you like it or not you're stuck with us."

Barret sighed as the expression on his face turned to sadness.

"I guess."

"Tell us what's going on Barret." Red XIII said,

"They said a man with a gun on his arm was responsible for the killings at the Gold Saucer. And you and Gordon are the only ones we know who have them"

"It wasn't me or him." Barret said,

"There's another one with a gun arm, my friend Dyne."

"The one you told us about?" Tifa asked.

"Yeah, it happened the same day Shinra attacked our town. When we got back and heard the news we tried to run in and save everyone but we were intercepted by Shinra troops. They shot at us and we ran near a cliff side. Dyne lost his footing and I was able to catch him. But…"

He then looked at his gun arm.

"My arm got shot up and I wound up dropping him. And all these years I thought he was dead."

"So what's the plan Mr. Wallace?" Tommy asked,

"Are we gonna kill him?"

"Tommy don't be ridiculous!" Aerith said, "Dyne was betrayed by Shinra too, we could use his help."

"Don't think that's possible." Barret said,

"It's just like Tommy said, we'll probably need to take care of him, and I need to do it alone."

"You're not doing this alone, we're coming with you." Cloud said.

"No! I don't want you involved anymore than you are!" Barret shouted,

"This is my fight and my fight- hey wait a minute." Barret said, surveying the room.

"Where did Tommy go?"

Everyone then looked around and found that Tommy was no longer in the shack, the door was slightly ajar.

"What the- he was here just a second ago!" Yuffie said.

"Where could he have gone?"

"Oh fuck." Gordon said, "He's gonna do what I think he's gonna do."

"What is he gonna do?" Aerith asked worriedly.

"He's gonna try and kill Dyne himself."

Cloud, Barret, and the rest of the party (minus Gordon), we're all running through the desert prison in pursuit of Tommy. Luckily (or unluckily) there was a trail of bodies they were able to follow.

'Gordon wasn't kidding, Tommy is a capable fighter.' Cloud thought.

They then reached a cliff side where they found two men. One was Tommy, the other was a man with a gun arm similar to Barret's and Gordon's, only it had one barrel and it was long and narrow.

And he was pointing it directly at Tommy, who was just standing there staring at him, unfazed.

"Dyne! Is that you!?" Barret shouted.

Dyne looked over at Barret, but still kept us gun pointed at Tommy. Tommy meanwhile turned around to face the party.

"Barret." Dyne said coldly, "It's been a while."

He then looked back at Tommy.

"This a friend of yours?"

"Yeah, he is." Barret said, "Let him go okay! He has nothing to do with this!"

"Afraid I can't do that." Dyne replied,

"This guy killed a whole bunch of my men, and he has every intention of killing me too."

"Yeah that's right." Tommy said, "I tried to get him, like a honey badger catching a den of snakes. But I ran out of ammo."

Dyne briefly gave Tommy a confused look before turning his attention back to Barret.

"Just like I said, now he's gonna die like them."

"He's just a kid, Dyne!" Barret shouted, "He didn't know what he was doing!"

"I know what I was doing Mr. Wallace!" Tommy shouted back,

"He's a bad guy, and at Black Mesa me, Mr. Freeman, Dr. Coomer, Dr. Bubby, and even Benrey killed people like him all the time."

While they were all talking and Dyne's attention was diverted, Gordon was slowly coming up behind Dyne, his chaingun arm pointing directly at him.

And in the distance, unbeknownst to everyone, a man in a blue suit was aiming his revolver directly at Dyne's head, should anything happen to Tommy.

"But this has nothing to do with you Tommy!" Aerith replied,

"This is Barret's fight! You shouldn't have gotten involved like this!"

"It's too late now." Dyne said, now looking back at Tommy, "Now, he's gonna die just like the rest of you."

It was then Dyne felt the cold barrels of Gordon's chaingun press up against the back of his head.

"I don't think so." Gordon said,

"Let. Tommy. Go. Now."

"And what if I don't?" Dyne replied while still having his gun trained on Tommy, "Gonna kill me?"

"No." Gordon said,

"If you do anything to hurt him, I'll shoot out both your arms. Then I'll shoot out both your legs. And then I'll drag your limbless body out in the middle of the desert where no one will find you so you can have a nice, slow, painful death."

Dyne sideways glanced at Gordon, unfazed at the threat he just heard.

"Heh, you got balls. I'll give you that." Dyne said, as he lowered his gun.

"Fine, I'll let him go."

"Good." Gordon said,

"Walk back slowly Tommy, I'll make sure he doesn't try anything."

Tommy silently nodded as he slowly walked back to rejoin the rest of the party. As he did, the man in the blue suit lowered his revolver, picked up his briefcase beside him, and went behind a nearby boulder, disappearing out of sight.

"Right, now it's my turn."

Gordon then slowly backwards walked his way back to the group, while keeping his gun pointed at Dyne. He was then right besides Barret and lowered his gun.

"I'll let you handle the rest." Gordon said to Barret.

Barret didn't reply, but instead walked forward to confront Dyne while the rest stood back.

"Don't interfere, this is his battle." Gordon told the group.

"Tommy, come with me, we're gonna have a chat."

"O-Okay."

Gordon was basically dragging Tommy by the hand as they moved around the corner to a distance that was out of earshot from the party.

"M-Mr. Freeman, slow down!" Tommy said, as gunshots could be heard in the distance.

"We're gonna miss the fight."

"Tommy, that doesn't matter." Gordon said, as he stopped, let go of Tommy's hand and turned to face him.

"What you did back there was extremely irresponsible. You can't just split from the party like that to go and take care of an issue that isn't yours to begin with."

"I was just doing what we did at Black Mesa Mr. Freeman! Taking care of the bad guys we come across."

"I know Tommy." Gordon said as he put both his left hand and chaingun arm on Tommy's shoulders.

"But this isn't Black Mesa, there are rules we need to follow and you can't just go off like that."

Gordon took a breath.

"Look, I've seen what you along with Coomer and Bubby can do. I didn't think you were in danger back there, but the people we're with, they aren't like you guys, they aren't indestructible."

"Are you saying they're weak?"

"What? No! Nothing like that! But look- there's something I actually really want to talk to you about."

Gordon then let go of Tommy's shoulders.

"This place, this world we're in. It's nothing like the one we came from. I don't know how we got here after teleporting out of Black Mesa, but I will tell you this: There are things about this world that I know about more than the people who live here do, I know things about certain individuals I really shouldn't know, and even events that haven't happened yet."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Tommy asked with a confused look on his face.

"Tommy, I guarantee you in a few minutes the rest of the party are gonna come back and Barret will have defeated Dyne. Don't ask me how I know that, I just do."

"Okay."

"Another thing Tommy, I'm not sure if you've noticed but Areith has taken a liking to you."

"W-What!?" Tommy shouted in surprise, his face starting to become red.

"W-W-What do you mean by that Mr. Freeman, is she- is she into-"

"Tommy, she doesn't like you in that way I'm afraid."

"Oh" Tommy replied, a frown beginning to form.

"But, I'm sure that you and her are gonna be great friends. Which brings me to another point: I need you to stay with her as much as you can, and make sure Sephiroth doesn't do anything to her."

"Uh huh." Tommy said while nodding.

"And the Black Materia? Make sure that doesn't reach Sephiroth whatsoever, heck Benrey too. If it reaches either of them………let's just say it'll bring about unforeseen consequences. And one more thing-"

Gordon held up one finger. As he did, the gunshots in the distance stopped.

"Under no circumstances can you tell anyone that I told you any of this, okay? I mean it Tommy."

"I-I promise!" Tommy said.

"Good, I'm gonna trust you on this."

It wasn't long until Cloud and the rest of the party rounded the corner.

Barret was with them as well, an expression of defeat etched on his face as he clenched a pendent in his hand.

"We're gonna go see Mr. Coates." Cloud said to Gordon and Tommy.

"Good, now we can get the fuck out of here!" Gordon said.

Aerith then came over to both Tommy and Gordon.

"Tommy, are you alright?" She asked.

"Yeah I'm fine." He replied.

"Don't worry Aerith, I made sure he got a stern talking to." Gordon said.

"That's good." She said,

"You can't just run off like that Tommy, you put yourself and the rest of us in danger."

"I know." Tommy replied, hanging his head.

"But it's in the past now, and I'm sure you've heard enough from Gordon as is." She said, putting a hand on his shoulder and getting him to raise his head up.

"Now let's go! It's time we got out of here!"

"Okay!" Tommy replied.

Cloud, Gordon, Barret, Tommy, and Tifa entered Mr. Coates' office as everyone else waited outside.

"Huh, so you're all back?" Mr. Coates said as he noticed the pair.

"I already told you, you need the boss's permission if you wanna go up!"

Barret then held up the pendant Dyne gave him.

"This enough?" He said.

Coates looked at the pendant with surprise.

"Huh!? You were actually able to kill him? That's the only explanation as to why you have that!"

Coates then looked at Cloud.

"Well, good riddance is what I say, a guy like him made life down here hell and now that he's gone I'm sure that things'll get slightly better."

Barret then grabbed the scuff of Coates' suit jacket, who now had a scared expression on his face.

"Watch what you say, unless you wanna end up in the ground." Barret said coldly.

"O-Okay I'm sorry! I didn't mean anything by it."

Barret then pushed Coates off of him, who brushed himself off.

"But it's like I said earlier, you still need to win the Chocobo race and……hey wait a minute." Coates said as his attention turned to Tommy.

"You, I know you."

Cloud, Gordon, Tifa, and Barret looked back at Tommy and back at Coates with confusion.

"Wait, how do you know Tommy?" Gordon asked.

"I don't, but I know of him, being Gold Saucers Chocobo racing champion and all."

Everyone then looked at Tommy with surprise.

"Tommy! You never told me that you've rode Chocobos before! Let alone being a champion in racing them!" Gordon said.

"I rode them for fun when I wasn't looking for Sunkist Mr. Freeman. And the racing bit wasn't that hard because I mastered that one mission from Jak 3." Tommy replied.

"Well whatever the reason, you're the best man for the job right now." Gordon replied.

"Alright, then Tommy will be the one racing." Cloud said,

"But I can only send one person up so you will all have to stay down here and pray he wins." said Coates.

"Well Tommy, looks like you'll have to do this on your own, is that alright with you?" Tifa asked.

"Yeah it shouldn't be that hard." Tommy replied.

"Then go get'em Tommy! We'll all be rooting for you down here!" Gordon said.

Tommy nodded and ran out the office.

"Hmph, guess we'll just have to hope he can pull it off, let's go." Barret said as he made his way to leave Coates' office.

"Barret wait!" Gordon said, stopping Barret and getting his attention.

"I need to apologize, not just to you but to Cloud and Tifa as well."

Gordon then took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry about exploding on you earlier, you didn't deserve it and I had no right to shout at you like that after what you were going through at the time."

He then turned his attention to Cloud and Tifa.

"And I'm sorry about the way I acted earlier, it's just I'm so used to confrontation and hostilities within a group and…..fuck!"

Gordon then put his hand over his eyes.

"I know I should be better and I shouldn't treat you guys like that because you don't deserve it and I'm just really-"

"Gordon." Barret said, as Gordon uncovered his eyes.

"It's fine, you probably had a lot of shit happen to you at Black Mesa so I can understand where you're coming from. And I shouldn't have gotten up in your face like that, it's on me too."

Barret then went up to Gordon, and held up his chaingun.

"Let's call it even eh?" He said.

Gordon looked at Barret and his chaingun and slightly chuckled.

"Yeah." He said, as he held up his chaingun arm.

They both bumped their respective guns against each other.

"And 'afraid of a guy with a chaingun on his arm'? You should be the one to talk to Gordon!" Barret said jokingly.

"Hey I had to say something!" Gordon said, as the both of them laughed.

Tifa meanwhile was watching the two while smiling.

Cloud wasn't showing it but he was happy the two were able to resolve their issues, and Gordon was seemingly back to normal.

'At least that won't be an issue anymore.' He thought.

'But one thing's for sure: We really need to find out what the hell happened at Black Mesa.'