AUTHOR'S NOTE: Holy cow this is a long chapter!

I'm sorry because there are probably loads of errors. I couldn't sit still long enough to proofread. You might not know this but I suffer from an undiagnosed case of ADHD. Haha! Well, it took time for me to think this through but once I sat down, it just flowed and turned into a long one! I wrote this to keep my mind off my grades. They are supposed to be online today and yet they are not!!! ARGH I HATE THIS!

CHAPTER THREE
STATIC

"Are you absolutely sure you've got the right guy?" Cloud said softly, walking toward the window. His tears were drying, sticking to his cheeks in a curved line.

"Yes. We intercepted him a few miles due west of Edge," he responded gruffly. "Seems a Materia was cast on him. He was lying weak and looking sick on the ground we found him on. I'm guessin' Poison Materia. Probably Tifa's doin'."

"And the children?" Cloud asked eagerly. There was a slight pause on the other end. "Barret?"

"No. The children weren't there."

"Well maybe it's the wrong guy," Cloud ran a hand through his hair, frustration threatening to creep out of his voice.

"There might be an accomplice, Cloud. We wouldn't know for sure anyway, not until Tifa identifies him. But I really think he is one of the kidnappers," Barrett responded with unsure confidence.

"This doesn't help if you got the wrong guy-"

"Cloud, why are you doubting me? You said west, right? Well this is the only guy in the west area for miles and miles away! You didn't think just because I found him with a big ribbon on the ground I told the men to stop searching for others!"

"I didn't mean to insult you, I'm sorry," Cloud tried to calm Barrett down as her rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"If you're really sorry, you'd better get yo' butt down here. We ain't starting the interrogation without you. Maybe you'd like to throw in a punch or two."

When Cloud didn't respond, Barrett proceeded to ask how Tifa was.

"The doctors say she's stable. But she won't be waking up soon," Cloud let a soft sigh escape from his lips.

"I understand this is hard, Cloud. We'll get to the bottom of this. My daughter was taken away. I intend to get her back," Barrett's tone had a ring of finality to it, Cloud wished he could be as determined as that. He glanced over his shoulder at the sleeping girl. The machines hooked up to her were the only things making a sound in the room. His breathing stopped. From where he stood, it seemed Tifa was not moving, not even breathing at all. She was so still…

He snapped his head back to the window and stared out, willing the thoughts to vanish, "Where are you?" His voice was firmer now.

"I'm in the Shinra warehouse near the woods. You'll see it when you ride past the junkyard and the garage south of Edge," Barrett answered casually.

"Shinra?" Cloud was a bit surprised, "But I thought-"

"Look, now's not the time to discuss business arrangements. Get your butt down here. The guy's starting to come to."

"Wait. I can't leave Tifa alone."

"No problem. I already sent Yuffie. She'll be there in a few minutes," Barrett answered. Cloud heard a voice shouting a distance behind Barrett, calling out his name, "I gotta go. It's showtime."

Cloud hung up as soon as he heard the line go dead on the other side. He turned toward Tifa and walked purposefully toward her.

"Tifa, " he whispered as he brushed tendrils of her hair from her face, "I hope you wake up soon."

"Is this a bad moment?" Yuffie said playfully from the door.

"Yuffie," Cloud said, thinking of something to say to her after she's caught him in a soft moment, completely off guard. He never noticed her presence until she spoke.

"Don't worry, Cloudie! I've always known you were a softie!" She said with a laugh, "Would you tell Vincent I'm in town? I miss him!"

Yuffie went toward him and started pushing him out the door. "Okay, I will..?" Cloud told her as he let her lead him out. He turned to look into the room and at Yuffie one last time.

"Thanks! And don't worry. I'll call you when there are any developments!" Her cheerful face turned serious for a moment, a solemn look in her eyes, "Don't worry, Cloud. Tifa is a strong person. We should believe that she'll wake up soon." As soon as she said it, Yuffie's mood changed back into her usual cheery disposition. She waved him away and shut the door as silently as she had opened it.

When Cloud arrived, several military cars and trucks with the WRO logo were parked around the warehouse. He glanced up at the warehouse doors and undoubtedly there was the Shinra company logo. They are probably using this place without permission, Cloud thought as he parked his motorcycle beside the other ordinary-looking ones.

There was a black motorcycle disassembled near one of the bigger military trucks. No one was outside so he proceeded to the small door, which was left slightly opened. There was a ruckus inside as men sat around checking weapons and smoking cigarettes. Some were drinking beer and laughing out loud at a joke another told. They sat on barrels and wooden boxed, which they also propped up against a wooden board to serve as their card table.

One of the men looked up from his hand to acknowledge him. He swiveled his head to the left to signal that was where Cloud was supposed to go. He then turned his attention back to the game, scratching his eyebrows, concentrating on his next move.

Cloud walked over to the direction the soldier had pointed out to him. It wasn't hard finding the room where the interrogation was apparently beginning without him. Voices from the inside were harsh, although the speech wasn't clear to Cloud. He knocked three times before opening the door.

"And you look at me when I'm talking to you, you good for nothin' sonofabtich!" Cid was saying as Cloud entered. He turned toward the newcomer, "Took you long enough!"

Cloud acknowledged everyone in the room with a slight nod of his head. Barrett, Cid and Rude were all standing inside the tiny white room, decorated in interrogation room fashion, with one hanging light above a table. Except instead of the suspect being questioned sitting across a table, he was cuffed to the wall as though in crucifixion. Reno was the only one sitting on the table with his face cupped in his hand.

Barrett crossed his arms. "We've been here a couple o' minutes. He ain't talkin'. Cid's called him everything in the book, and still he ain't talkin'"

"It's getting boring, this whole thing," Reno said, putting his arms behind his head and rocking his chair.

Cloud took one look at the prisoner, a large burly man with tattered black clothes. His motorcycle was probably the one dissected outside. He noticed the gun laid out on the table before Reno, along with a large pocketknife and sunglasses broken into two. Cloud strode briskly toward the prisoner and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, a snarl on his lips.

Everyone was taken aback by his violent reaction, "Yo, Cloud! What are you doin'?"

"Where are they?!" He shouted above everyone else. His voice was firm and loud, his eyes were murderous. "Where are the kids?"

The prisoner looked up at him, recognition lighted up his eyes. He took in Cloud's garb and noticed the lion perched on his chest. "Y… You!"

"Well that's the first word this asshole's said all day!" Cid said as he lighted a cigarette.

Cloud pushed the man and placed his forearm at his neck. "Do you have any idea what you did? You… You shot her! You nearly killed her!" Cloud said in a silent, cold rage.

"Hey, Cloud! Take it easy!" Reno said as he got up from his seat.

"Cloud Strife," the burly man said with a smirk, "I recognize you from the picture."

"What?!" He pushed his forearm roughly toward the man's throat.

"Don't strangle him until we get information from him!" Barrett tried prying Cloud's arm away but he held it fast.

"This bastard tried to kill Tifa! He kidnapped the kids! He's trying to destroy my family!" Cloud said in a fit of rage.

"Well this won't give us answers," Barrett said calmly. He tried prying Cloud's arm away and this time he was able to. Cloud seemed to see reason with what was said.

"You. Talk. Now," Cid said as he puffed smoke on to the man's face.

"Yeah. I'll talk," He said mockingly, "That woman of yours with the angel-face- Tifa, was it? Yeah. She was definitely something. She could throw a punch, that girl. And those legs of hers…" he whistled, "Oh yeah, I'd love to-"

Cloud threw the punch before anybody saw it coming. The man's cheek retained the shape of Cloud's knuckle, saliva was dripping down his chin with a mix of blood. He spit out a broken tooth.

"You! Never ever talk about her like that!" Cloud's eyes were wide. They have never seen him quite as angry as he is now. "Listen you," He said as he grabbed him by the collar of his shirt again, "You tell me where they are now or I swear-"

"Or what?" the man smiled, a tooth missing from the upper right, "Remember, I'm the only one who knows. You'd better be careful with your temper around me, Strife."

Cloud lifted his knuckles to give another punch but Barrett and Cid were able to restrain him. They peeled him off and sat him down the chair as Reno held it for him. Rude was on the phone, calling someone up. "Tseng. Yeah, we got a situation here," was all he said before he hung up.

Barrett sat on the table, staring straight at the man who at this point had bowed down his head. Saliva was going off from his mouth and running down his shirt. His eyes were wide open.

"Close your mouth, you pig! You disgust me!" Cid said as he threw down his cigarette and stepped on it.

The man opened his mouth to say something when suddenly he began to shake. He trembled until it became a violent shaking.

"This might just be an act," Rude told everyone, alert. But it was apparent when his mouth started to bubble that something really was happening to him.

"Oh great. Now you've done it. What did you do to him?" Reno said aloud to Cloud as he approached the trembling man. "He's having a seizure."

"Good," Cloud said, his fists balled up on the table. "Good. And I hope I really did do it," He was watching the scene with steely eyes.

The man trembled until it appeared he would break off the metal cuffs connecting him to the wall. His head moved up to reveal his eyes rolling into the back of his head, his mouth was bubbling.

"Call the doctor!" Barrett shouted at Rude, who ran out the door in a flurry.

His seizure was dying down when the doctor entered the room. All that was left were several jerks on his leg and his shoulders. His body stopped moving and went limp. His head still perched on his shoulder, looking up to the sky as though asking for mercy. His eyes were white, they had rolled to the back of his head and stayed that way.

The doctor had him laid down on the table as he examined the pulse and shook his head. Cloud stared at the body in front of him, lifeless, unmoving. So still…

"Great," Barrett was staying, "We'll have to start from scratch."

"But it's strange though. How could the asshole suddenly just die on us like that? I don't think we or Cloud did anything damaging enough to cause this," Cid answered.

"I'll have the doctors perform an autopsy in one of the Shinra labs," Reno was saying, "We can find out the cause then," Rude was already on the phone as this was being said. He called up Tseng and told him to get doctors on standby.

All the conversation went right through Cloud's head as he sat, staring at the body of the man who a moment ago he wanted to kill himself. But now, as he lay there, so lifeless… So still…

Cloud stood up so abruptly that he knocked the chair to the floor. He stared at the wall with eyes unseeing.

"Cloud! What's the matter?" Barrett looked over. When he saw Cloud's expression, worry immediately creased his face, "Cloud? It's not your fault!"

Cloud ran out of the room as Barrett and the others called after him. He got on Fenrir and rode away as fast as he could. He vaguely saw Barrett waving his arms around by the warehouse door. Cid was running to the back of the warehouse, undoubtedly to ride one of his airships to chase after him.

So still… So still…

He had images in his head: the man lying with foam on his mouth and chin, lifeless, eyes wide open and white. And Tifa. Lying on the hospital bed. So still…

Tears began to sting his eyes. He had forgotten to put on his goggles and convinced himself it was the dust on the road. That's it Cloud, run away. That's what you do best.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I just realized, after doing research, that I misspelled Barret's name this whole time! But since I already began with that spelling, I'll continue on with that spelling! :D

And I just want to say thank you to everyone who has reviewed, added this story to their faves or watchlists. I'm really glad and thankful to you all and I hope you all keep it coming! I'm gunning for 22 reviews before I start the next chapter. Is that too ambitious?

Anyhow, hope you like this chapter. :)