Tifa, Tommy, and the others entered the village of Mideel. Tifa herself was eager to see if Cloud was here or not as Tommy claimed.
"Are you sure he's here?" Tifa asked.
"Yeah, I brought him here myself." replied Tommy.
"You brought Cloud here by yourself?" asked Vincent.
"That's right." Tommy replied,
"The clinic is just up this way, follow me."
They followed Tommy into a clinic that sat atop the village. Inside was a doctor examining a clipboard.
When he noticed Tommy and the others walk in he put the clipboard down and went over to greet them.
"Ah, it's good to see you're back." The doctor said to Tommy,
"And I see you've brought friends."
"Uh huh, they're here to see Cloud." said Tommy.
"Is that so?" The doctor asked, as he looked over at the others,
"Well he's in the other room, so if they-"
As soon as Tifa heard that, she dashed into the other room where a nurse was tending to someone on a wheelchair.
"Cloud!?" said Tifa.
When the nurse saw Tifa, she got up and let her see who was sitting in the chair.
It was Cloud.
"Cloud?"
When Cloud looked up, he had a distant look in his eyes. His mouth was agape and he was groaning to himself.
"C-Cloud?"
"Mako poisoning." The doctor said as he walked in,
"It's a rather advanced case too, I doubt he even knows who he is or where he even is."
"There's no way to fix him?" asked Barret, as he and the others came in.
"I'm afraid not. With mako poisoning like this it's a miracle he's even still alive."
"But there is a way to fix him!" said Tommy,
"Now that Ms. Lockhart is here. Cloud's road to recovery can begin."
"Huh?" said Tifa.
"Or, at least that's what my dad said."
"Tommy how the fuck can she do anything to cure Cloud?" asked Bubby,
"I mean look at him, he's practically lobotomized!"
"Now Bubby, if Tommy thinks there's a way to fix Cloud then I'm sure it's possible." said Coomer,
"We just need to give it some time!"
"If that's true…" said Tifa, as she turned to face the doctor,
"I want to stay here and act as his caretaker."
"What?" said Cid,
"Tifa, you can't just leave the party like this, we still have a planet to save!"
"That doesn't matter to me now." said Tifa, as she turned to face Cloud,
"The only thing I care about is Cloud."
The party fell silent, they didn't know how to respond to Tifa's sudden abandonment for the sake of Cloud.
But they could all tell that she deeply cared for him.
"Well if that is the case, you and him can split duties," said the doctor.
"Huh?" said Tifa,
"Me and who?"
"Him." The doctor said, gesturing to Tommy.
"Tommy?" Tifa asked,
"You've been taking care of Cloud all this time?"
"Yeah." replied Tommy,
"I brought him here when he washed up on shore a week ago. I've made sure he's been getting the best care my dad can get him. And-"
He then pulled out a small box from his coat.
"-I have this for him when he wakes up."
"What is it?"
"Something Cloud really enjoys."
Tifa stood there, while she was still mad at Tommy for what happened with Aerith, she suddenly found a warm spot for him after hearing what he's been doing for Cloud.
"Okay," said Tifa,
"We'll both stay here and take care of Cloud, and….there's some things I need to ask you as well."
"Okay." Tommy replied.
"Hang on a second!" said Bubby,
"Tommy you can't just leave the group like this too! We're the goddamn science team! We don't leave our own behind!"
"You didn't seem to broken up about it when we more or less exiled him before." said Yuffie,
"And didn't you say you wanted him and his dog to die?"
"Oh! Well, um-" Bubby stammered.
"It's fine." said Tommy,
"I fucked up and made us lose Aerith, I deserve all the scorn."
Everyone looked at Tommy in surprise when he said that. Up until now they just thought of him as someone who possessed the mind of a child. But to hear him come out and admit his mistake was a shock to them.
"Well now you can make up for it." said Tifa,
"Help me take care of Cloud, and I may forgive you."
Tommy nodded as he went over to tend to Cloud.
The others took this as a signal to leave. They all quietly shuffled out, with Bubby and Coomer behind them.
"Wait," said Tifa, stopping the both of them,
"Make sure……make sure you guys rescue Gordon as well."
"We will Tifa." said Coomer,
"Just focus on bringing Cloud back to us."
Bubby and Coomer then left the clinic.
Tifa then took a big sigh and went over to where Tommy was tending to Cloud.
'This isn't fair.' She thought,
'This shouldn't be happening to him, after all he went through. And…I'm supposed to help bring him back somehow?' Her thoughts continued,
'What do I do? Cloud, please…….what do I do?'
Everyone (minus Tommy and Tifa) was aboard the Highwind. The mood and morale of the group after seeing the state Cloud was in was at an all time low.
"What do we do?" Barret asked,
"I mean, what CAN we do?"
"We can't just sit around and do nothing." said Vincent,
"We still have a planet to save."
"Oh what's the fucking point?" said Bubby.
"Bubbs?" said Cid.
"What's the point of trying to save this fucking world anyway? I mean look at the state of things!" Bubby continued,
"Benrey's giant fucking head is crashing down onto the planet as we speak! Cloud is goddamn brain dead with Tommy and Tifa holding onto some stupid hope he'll somehow snap back to reality! And Gordon is being held captive in Midgar where who the fuck knows what Shinra is doing to him!" He said,
"So I ask again? Why the fuck should we continue this fucking quest? There's nothing we can do!"
"Bubby!" said Coomer,
"We can't just give up hope like this! It's like you said: even when all the hope is gone, we move along to make it through!"
"I know what I fucking said Dr. Coomer!" said Bubby,
"But there's nothing we'll be able to move along to in the near future!"
"Bubby!" said Cid, as he went over to him,
"We can't give up like this. How long have I known you? When have you ever given up on something?"
"What are you getting at?" asked Bubby.
"Remember all those years we worked on the Shinra No. 26 together? Even though there was no shot in hell that thing was ever gonna fly again?"
"Yeah, and?"
"Did that stop either of us from giving up? Hell no! We kept working on that thing from dusk till dawn, and not once did you think repairing the rocket was a hopeless venture."
"That's...that's because I was still holding onto the hope I would get to go back into space again." said Bubby.
"Even so, you and I kept working on that rocket, and not once did you lose hope we weren't going to get funding from Shinra to get the space program up and running again." Cid continued,
"So I'll ask you this: are you gonna give up now? After everything that's happened."
Bubby stood there silent, his head was down and his fists were bawled.
His mouth moved but no words could be heard.
"What was that Bubby?"
"No." said Bubby,
"No, I'm not gonna fucking quit. You think I'm some chicken shit who gives the fuck up when the tough gets going? You have another thing coming to you!"
"I think you meant to say when the going gets tough." interjected Yuffie.
"Shut up!" shouted Bubby,
"Now tell me what the fuck we have to do to save this damn planet!"
"Um, if I may?" said Cait Sith,
"I think I have something you would all want to hear?"
"And what's that?" asked Barret.
"Just listen."
Inside the Shinra board room, Reeve Tuesti sat in the corner of the long table while Palmer, whose legs were in a cast and sat in a wheelchair, was with Heddiger who both sat opposite of him.
"Is he almost here?" asked Reeve.
"He said he'll be up in a few moments." replied Heddiger,
"He's just checking with Hojo on the status of Freeman."
Rufus then walked into the room and took his seat at the end of the table.
"Alright," said Rufus as he addressed the room,
"We have two things we need to do if we want to save this planet. First, we need to destroy Benrey before he collides with the planet. Second, we have to find a way to remove the barrier around the North Crater and stop Sephiroth. I'm open to any ideas of how we're going to be able to pull this off."
Heddiger laughed when Rufus finished speaking.
"Well, we already know what to do in regards to destroying Benrey." He said.
"Yes, I know." said Rufus,
"That blue suited gentleman gave us the intel we needed if we want to weaken and take out Benrey, something about destroying his son's passport, along with Bubby's and Coomer's."
"Didn't he also say something about destroying Sephiroth and Gordon's passport too?" Palmer asked.
"That's right." said Rufus,
"We're already in possession of Bubby's passport. We'll launch it into space at Benrey after we've collected and destroyed the other passports."
"Do we know where the other passports are?" Reeve asked.
"We believe one is at Fort Condor and the other is at Mount Corel, I've already dispatched troops to go and retrieve them. Bubby's we have stored on the Shinra No. 26." said Heddiger.
"Good." said Rufus,
"Now all that's left is finding a way to penetrate that light barrier and getting to Sephiroth."
"What about Gordon?" asked Reeve,
"What are you having Hojo do to him?"
"That is none of you concern Reeve." replied Rufus,
"I already have Hojo along with another scientist trying to find a way to get Dr. Freeman to open the gate into the real Promised Land. It'll probably be a long process but it will be worth it in the end. For both this company and the Planet as a whole."
"What is this 'real Promised Land'?" Reeve asked,
"And what makes you think Gordon is the key to getting to it?"
Rufus chuckled when he heard what Reeve said.
"You don't know who- actually let me rephrase this: You don't know what Dr. Freeman is."
"Don't know what he is?" said Reeve,
"Are you saying he's a Creta?"
"No, nothing like that." said Rufus,
"What Gordon Freeman is..is something that's beyond any of our comprehension." He continued,
"You see, before I took over as president after Sephiroth killed my father. I read classified documents about the experiments we ran on Dr. Coomer all those years ago."
"Huh?" asked Heddigar,
"How were you able to get your hands on those?"
"Being the president's son comes with a lot of perks." replied Rufus,
"Now what I saw in those documents baffled me at first. What the good doctor talked about Mr. Freeman, how he had a world in his dreams, how his world was just an empty void outside of Black Mesa, and how after him along with his friends solved the resonance cascade everything would be shut off, it didn't make any sense whatsoever." Rufus said,
"But then after seeing what Coomer was capable of in those video recordings, which if I do say so myself we're quite gruesome, and seeing the weaponry he had on him, along with reports of his friends making appearances, first Bubby who came to work for us, then Tommy who would pop up from time to time looking for his dog, and then Benrey started working with Sephiroth, it- I don't know why but it just clicked that maybe Coomer was telling the truth." He continued,
"And then when I read the report from Tseng that Dr. Freeman made his first appearance, I could no longer keep in, I have to see if he's telling the truth and there's a world out there that contains the resources we need and…..something more."
"Something more?" asked Palmer,
"Like what?"
"I don't know." replied Rufus,
"Something…..something that will open all of our minds to possibilities that we could never have thought of before."
"I'm not sure I follow sir." said Reeve.
"Just leave all of this to me." replied Rufus,
"Right now I need you all to focus your efforts on getting the remaining passports and defeating Sephiroth." He said,
"That is all, dismissed."
"What the hell was all of that?" said Barret,
"What was all that crap about destroying passports?"
"Hmmmm." said Coomer,
"Well this explains why I didn't have my passport on me when I arrived here!"
"What are you talking about?" asked Cid.
"When I was first teleported here 25 years ago I lost my passport somehow."
"How did you lose your passport?"
"Well, I'm not quite sure, my memory is a bit of a haze-"
"I DID IT!"
Everyone jumped as a loud, gargantuas voice was heard outside. They all looked out the window and saw Benrey was staring right at them from above.
"I STOLE YOUR PASSPORTS AND HID THEM! NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO STOP ME NOW! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Barret shook his head.
"Well that explains it." He said,
"And who was that guy Rufus was talking about, that 'blue suited gentleman'?"
"I believe he might be referring to Tommy's father!" said Coomer.
"Tommy's father?" asked Yuffie,
"What's he doing working with Shinra?"
"I don't believe he's working with Shinra, Yuffie." replied Coomer,
"Rather he's using them to help destroy Benrey!"
"Well who is he?" asked Red XIII,
"And why haven't we seen or heard about him until now?"
"Well, from what Tommy told me he does like to keep himself out of the public eye most of the time." replied Coomer,
"In fact Tommy even told me he hasn't seen him since being dropped off at the orphanage!"
"What!?" said Barret,
"What kind of father is that?"
"Oh who the fuck cares at this point!" said Bubby,
"As long as he's doing stuff that will help us in the long run he can do whatever the hell he wants!"
"Alright, alright.." said Barret, trying to get things back on track,
"Lastly, what was he talking about with Gordon?"
Barret was looking at Coomer when he said that.
"Barret?" said Coomer.
"What did you tell Shinra about him, Coomer?"
Coomer looked around and saw all the party members, Bubby included, had their eyes locked onto him.
"Oh well, um-" said Coomer, trying to find the right words to say,
"Let's just say that Gordon is…….special."
"Special?" Cid asked,
"Special how?"
"Does this have to do with that 'world in his dreams' crap I keep hearing you spout about?" asked Bubby.
Coomer silently nodded.
"Wait, hang on a second." said Barret,
"What 'world in his dreams'? What are you talking about?"
"It's just that….that……" Coomer trailed off,
"I………I think it's best if you hear it from him."
"What?" asked Barret,
"Why can't you tell us?"
"I can't." replied Coomer,
"It's……too painful."
Everyone starred at Coomer, trying to make sense as to what he was saying.
But judging from the pained expression Coomer had it was best not to press any further.
"Alright." said Barret,
"We'll ask Gordon directly."
"But how are we gonna get to him?" Cid asked,
"He's more than likely being held at Shinra HQ, and an army of Shinra's best troops probably stand between us and him. We can't just go in guns blazing."
"But the longer he's held prisoner by Shinra, the more likely they'll get to the world in Gordon's dreams as Coomer put it, we can't just put him off completely." said Vincent.
"Um, I think you're all forgetting something." said Cait Sith,
"I can keep an eye on Gordon for all of you."
"Why should we trust you?" said Barret,
"You did Shinra's bidding in the past, so why should we take anything you say for granted?"
Cait Sith sighed.
"That's true, after what I did in regards to the Keystone I don't deserve any trust from any of you. But after what I've seen Shinra do I have no loyalty to them anymore." He said,
"That's why from here on out I'll act as your inside man. I'll feed you any information that'll come my way and I'll make sure Shinra doesn't get what they want from Gordon."
"They won't be able to get in," said Coomer.
"How do you know that?" asked Red XIII.
"Gordon has to let them in willingly, and there's no way he'll give them what they want. I should know."
"And how do you know?"
"I tried to go there through his arm and wear him like a puppet, and that didn't work."
"W-What?" said Barret, as he and the others became very unsettled at Coomer's statement.
"That's pretty disturbing, Coomer." said Cid.
"But there is one way through." said Coomer.
"Where?"
"His eyes."
Inside the metallic room where Gordon Freeman was being held. He was strapped to a table that binded his torso and arms.
He had been strapped there for a few hours, or in the games case, a week.
'Fuck man I can't just stay strapped to this thing forever.' He thought,
'People are gonna get bored and tune into something else.'
He shook his head in frustration.
'And speaking of which, how many people are even watching? I really should check.'
The only door in and out of the room opened and Hojo walked in.
"Comfortable yet Dr. Freeman?" Hojo asked sarcastically.
"Yeah, glad you reserved the worlds most comfortable torture device for me."
Hojo slightly chuckled at Gordon's remark.
"Well don't get too adjusted to it. Pretty soon I'll get you to open up."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Gordon asked.
Hojo walked up to Gordon and was nearly face to face with him.
"I'm sure you remember that one time Dr. Coomer attempted to enter the world in your dreams, correct?"
"Yeah……it took me a while to figure out what he was talking about, but that's referring to the 'world in my dreams' he keeps going on about, isn't it?
"That's right," replied Hojo,
"But your world is different from the one Coomer, Tommy, Bubby, and Benrey come from, it's something…..more." He continued,
"But he wasn't able to get there through your arm, was he?"
"No, he wasn't," Gordon replied,
"And what makes you think you can get there?"
"There's one way." Hojo replied,
"I just need you to open up your eyes."
"Open up my eyes?" Gordon asked,
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
Hojo went over to a nearby desk and grabbed a folder. He pulled out a sheet of paper and walked back towards Gordon.
"You really should have been more careful Mr. Freeman." said Hojo,
"Back at Junon Harbor, when you disguised yourself as a Shinra trooper, you opened the gate temporarily."
"What?"
"A Shinra trooper witnessed it during the parade, you gave him quite the scare too."
Gordon was trying to rack his brain as to what Hojo was referring to. He was in the parade as a trooper at one point but that was so he could get on Rufus' ship.
'I was in the parade at one point but what the fuck is Hojo talking about, what Shinra trooper witnessed me opening a gate?'
"What fucking gate are you talking about?" asked Gordon
Hojo held out his index and middle finger and put them in front and between Gordon's eyes.
"The one right here."
Gordon gave a confused look, which quickly turned to realization.
'Wait, is he fucking talking about through my VR headset?' Gordon thought,
'But how does that open a gate?'
"Okay, just to play along, this so-called 'gate' is through my eyes. How exactly do you plan to get through there anyway?"
Hojo chuckled.
"That's something you'll need to do for us Dr. Freeman." He said,
"And when you do, Rufus will no doubt continue his ridiculous fantasy that he and the rest of this company can somehow live in your world."
He then turned and walked towards a nearby computer and began to type on it.
"But none of that matters to me, all I care about is the rumor being dispelled."
Gordon noticed Hojo slightly twitch and clench his chest when he said that.
"Rumor?" asked Gordon,
"What rumor?"
"Now where is my assistant?" Hojo said, ignoring Gordon.
The door opened and another scientist walked in.
"There you are." said Hojo.
Gordon looked over and when he saw who it was he gasped in surprise.
The person who walked wore the same outfit as the rest of the scientists who worked at Black Mesa. He was dark skinned and looked as if he was in his mid to late 50's.
"D-Darnold!?" Gordon said in surprise.
"Ah, hello Dr. Freeman!" Darnold said in a friendly manner,
"It's been a while!"
