The Final Fantasy Pt. 2

Cloud thought hard and then said, "A lack of jobs, too many people."

"No." Barret was shacking his head in disagreement.

"What then?" Cloud tried to think again. If the answer wasn't jobs then what was it? Money! "There's not enough money to go around!"

"Sorry, no."

"I give up."

"Alright, I'm not a deeply religious person, Cloud, but there's an old saying that man dominates man to his injury. How does a man dominate another man in an injurious way? I'll tell you, what the bad man does is he stores up all the necessary things in life for himself and he sells them to others at a high price. Tell me, Cloud, what are some things that are necessary in life?"

"Food, clothes, and a home."

"Those are important ones. You said food? Well, Shinra controls food in Midgar, I don't know about anywhere else but in Midgar Shinra runs the show. They control the prices and the distribution. Do you think that we get the best crops?"

"Probably not."

"Think back to your Soldier days. Was the food better, healthier?"

Cloud didn't have to think for long, he longed for the fresh and plump fruit, the thick and well-cooked meats, and the deliciously steamed vegetables. "I know the food was better."

"So you see, Shinra controls food. What about land? Can a man go anyplace and build a home? No, Shinra owns it all. Therefore a man even in birth is in debt to Shinra from the beginning. Do you see how man dominates man, Cloud? It's to man's injury that he is dominated."

Cloud thought for a while. None of these things had ever entered into Cloud's head and a light was growing brighter and brighter as the two walked and talked.

"I think I understand where poverty comes from. It comes from Shinra."

"In this case it does."

The afternoon grew long and so did their journey. Cloud didn't know whether they had a destination or not. Every time he meant to ask, Barret started speaking on further and deeper subjects until Cloud would forget about where they were going. Eventually the light started to grow dim and there remained but a short while until night.

"I hope we make it," said Barret. He was looking into the sky trying to distinguish their remaining time for Cloud's surprise.

"You mean we're actually going somewhere?"

"If we hurry you'll get to see it."

"What?" Cloud was hoping Barret would give a hint.

Barret looked at Cloud as if to say: Nice try, no cigar! "Just run."

"Run?" Cloud asked but Barret had already left him behind.

Barret was five feet ahead of Cloud. "If you don't hurry up we'll miss it, come on."

The two were racing down the streets passing by broken down houses and abandoned buildings of every sort. Further ahead, Cloud could see some type of gargantuan structure that was perpendicular to where he was running.

It's a Great Wall. Thought Cloud.

There were walls that separated the Seven Sectors of Midgar and these walls were called the Great Walls. The walls were reinforced concrete, thirty feet thick and a hundred feet tall. The only breaches to the walls were the trains. This was the wall that Barret and Cloud were approaching.

"We have about two miles or it's all for nothing!" Barret pumped his arms as fast as he could."

Cloud was surprised that a man of Barret's size could run so fast. Still, Cloud was faster and Cloud easily kept up. "What are we running for?"

Barret laughed even under the circumstances and said, "You think that I'm going to tell you now?"

Cloud didn't respond.

A mile eventually passed and then a mile and a half. The two were breathing hard but Barret was having more trouble than Cloud. They were running as fast as their legs would allow. The sun was just beginning to set.

"Come on, Cloud!" A little over a quarter of a mile left and we're there!"

Cloud kept running and so did Barret until they reached the wall and Barret rested his hands on his knees. Cloud stopped near Barret and was intense with emotion for his surprise but he saw nothing in sight. The closes object was the wall, which was a few feet away, and then not far off were shabby houses. "No time to rest, Cloud, let's get going."

"There's nowhere to go!" Cloud thought that he had been spending the day with a mad man and all his dreams about finding his destiny were foolish wishes.

"What do you mean? Start climbing." Barret pointed to a rubber electrical wire that fell from somewhere on top of the Great Wall.

Cloud didn't know where they were headed but he didn't question. He jumped up and caught the wire in his hands and started to ascend.

"Don't wait for me. Just keep climbing."

For fifteen minutes the two climbed until there was nearly no strength left in their bodies. Barret was just less than twenty feet below Cloud.

"Are you going to make it Barret?" Cloud had said and then looked down. The height made Cloud's stomach turn. He wished he hadn't have looked down.

"Don't worry about me! Keep climbing!" Barret was screaming but he sounded tired.

The rest of the way up was excruciating and Cloud had to force every inch up for the last twenty feet. Finally, he laid one hand at the edge and then the other and pulled himself to the top. His eyes were shut and he was breathing like a locomotive careening up a hill. For a second he had forgotten about Barret so he looked over the edge. When he looked over, he could see Barret had stopped fifteen feet from the top.

"Barret, are you ok?" Cloud looked at the sun at it was three-fourths finished. He thought that maybe all Barret had wanted to do was bring him up here to show him the sun setting and speak to him about Midgar's problems and how he could help. Though he had no idea of how he could accomplish that.

"I'm fine! I'll make it!" Barret started to make his way but he would never make the sun set.

Oh well, maybe we could do this tomorrow? Forget that! I should kick him down when he comes up. Brining me all the way up here to see the damn sun set, he must be damn crazy!

The sun was fading and Barret needed eight more feet to the top.

"Come on, Barret, your sun is setting!"

"That's fine." Barret had mumbled. He dragged himself three more feet and then stopped to breath.

Fine? Cloud thought.

The sun set completely and the light left darkness behind.

Barret climbed a bit more and Cloud helped pull him the rest of the way up. Barret was coughing and his chest was heaving.

Cloud just looked at him. He didn't care. He thought: What knowledge could this man give me that would change my life? Nothing, that's what!

Barret laughed and Cloud was caught off guard.

"What the hell is so funny, Barret?"

Barret rested himself on his elbow and said, "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking: "I should throw this no good son of gun off this damn cement wall!"

"You're right but why is that funny?" Cloud was looking angrily.

"It's funny because your whole attitude is about to change. It's getting darker now and so I can begin."

"Begin with what?"

Barret sat up with his legs crossed over each other. "Have you ever heard of Avalanche?"

Cloud's eyebrows furrowed deeply. "Yes, a few times."

"What have you heard?"

"That Avalanche is a terrorist group. You're in it?" Cloud looked around him as if he'd see a Shinra shoulder hiding behind him ready to arrest him.

"I'm the head."

Cloud was speechless. He had spent the whole day with the leader of the terrorist group Avalanche.

"I need something from you. In return, I'll give you something that no one else can."

The destiny stirred again. It was ripping through Cloud's heart and setting it on fire. The night had come and the air-cooled down in a very short time.

"Turn to the middle of Midgar, Cloud, and face your wonderful future." Barret was pointing to the center of the seven sectors but there was only a black splotch. The night was to dim to see anything of any significance.

"I want to recruit you, Cloud. In this day and age money isn't spent on arms. Not even most Shinra soldiers carry artillery. Hand to hand combat and swords are what today's soldier use. Shinra finds their wealth in even their own soldier's death. Why spend money arming a soldier when there are ten more ready to take his place who won't ask for a weapon?"

There was a silence between the two and then Barret continued, "I need your expertise." They continued to look into the emptiness of Midgar. "I need your fighting skill. Remember when we first started talking today? I was speaking about how we are the same and how some people have special gifts? I was born to fight and to raise an army. I'm the "good fighter", I fight for the good and being a good fighter I can only fight evil."

Barret turned to Cloud but Cloud was mesmerized by the blackness.

"I can see that you're the same as me, Cloud. You're the good fighter. Your payment, your true payment, besides lots of gil, is that I give you the true fight. The fight that dreams are made of."

The haunting voice of Cloud's dream came to him, "Fear me."

Barret's voice drowned out Cloud's nightmare, "Gaze upon your enemy, Cloud."

As if by will, a small light appeared in the middle of Midgar. Then another light blinked to life, a Pandora's box was open and a wave of lights started to illuminate the dark blotch in the middle of Midgar. From all Seven Sectors lights appeared but none as bright as the Shinra stronghold in the middle of Midgar.

There was no speech between the two. Cloud was given a proposition to be included into something important. He was unsure of how he should feel just at that moment. What was he compared to the awesome government building flashing before his eyes? Suddenly, he felt very small and then he noticed the small lights from the sectors below. All those weak lights were coming from people who were hungry and poor. The Shinra government was neither hungry nor poor.

There is my enemy. I have found my enemy and therefore I have found myself.

The night was cold but no longer dark. Things had gone exactly how Barret had schemed and he was happy about that. Now all that was left was for Cloud to accept.

For a long time Barret waited for Cloud's response and he wondered whether Cloud would truly throw him over the edge wall or not but then Cloud decided to speak.

He looked to Barret and uttered the words that would forever change his life, "I'll join."

So then it began.

Chapter 2: Mako Reactor One

Cloud was now in Avalanche and he would never forget how he became a member. Barret had gone to great lengths figuratively and literally in order to motivate Cloud to join his team.

The two Avalanche members stayed on that wall until morning and then afterward climbed down and made their way back to the Seventh Heaven Bar. On their way back, Barret informed Cloud on some of his new team members, Tifa Lockheart, Aeris Lockheart and, Vincent Valentine.

"These are the main members," said Barret. He was looking at Cloud, who was trying to remember everything the first time. "Each of the main members knows other people that we don't know and that's because if any of us ever get caught the whole movement doesn't get dragged down with them. Sound good?"

Cloud shook his head and then asked, "Then, Am I on your secret list?" Barret laughed a hearty laugh and Cloud looked up at him in puzzlement. "What?"

"Nothing. I thought you would become a main member is all."

Cloud was shocked. "How… Why would you make me a main member? I barely got involved and now you want to make me a main member?"

Barret let out some more laughter then said, "No, No, It's not like that at all. Don't think becoming a main player is easy. First, you have to prove your worth, which I think you've already done."

"I have?"

For the first time that morning, Barret looked frustrated. "I can see through you, Cloud. We're the same, basically. I know what you're all about within the time that I've known you. Let's just leave it at that."

Cloud wanted to press Barret further but he guessed Barret would refuse so he let his imagination about the future lead him away to fanciful thoughts of chivalry and war. The ecstasy that he felt for his knew life style was beyond what he could have every hoped for. His knew life forebode exotic adventures and accomplishments that would outlive his being.

Barret didn't seem to be in a contemplative mood. He continued to walk at a quick and steady pace back to the bar where he would introduce Cloud to the rest of the main group.

The walk was more difficult getting back; the road they used was at a tilt against their advantage. Along the way, they ran across beggars and homely looking children, abandoned houses and abandoned dreams. Barret appeared to be greatly moved by what he saw which was strange in Cloud's eyes for he knew that they both had been seeing these things all their lives but Barret looked at everyone and everything as if it were the first time.

"We only have a bit further," said Barret.

"Good, I'm getting tired and it's getting dark." Cloud's shoulders slumped to his sides. He noticed that Barret was also leaning over from being tired.

"Hey Barret, the girls at the bar are the Tifa and Aeris that you mentioned to me right?"

"Barret looked at Cloud with a half smile on his face and said, "Yeah, why?"

Cloud frowned back at him and said, "No reason, I just wanted to ask about the one you called Vincent."

Barret looked up to the sky and wrinkled his lips and stroked his chin with his big fingers. "Vincent is probably the best at keeping secrets."

"Secrets?" Cloud was intrigued.

"Yeah, we don't really know how to get into contact with him."

"You don't know how to get into contact with him!"

Barret looked a little embarrassed at Cloud. "Well, I met Vincent similarly to the way I met you."

"Through the fights you mean?"

"Exactly, he was a good enough fighter and he scraped about Shinra so little by little I would have longer and more intense conversations with him until he figured I was Shinra. At first, I was a little scared that he knew but that fear was smashed when he asked to become a member."

"How long has he been in?"

"Oh, Vincent has been in for about a year almost. I don't keep that information around. Think of what would happen if Shinra got their hands on anything like that!"

Cloud shook his head. "So you really don't know how to get into contact with him?"

"Well, he's not as bad as that. He comes around once a week for the fights and scores a little money. Those are the times when I fill him in on anything and visa versa."

"Is he a good fighter?" Cloud was truly interested.

Barret looked at Cloud. "He's good but not great. One thing though, he carries a double-edged sword."

Cloud shook his head speculatively.

"Maybe you two could spare with one another some time. See who's better, but my money's on you my man."

Cloud laughed and the two kept walking until they reached the bar. When they got there, the place looked abandoned. There weren't any patrons at the entrance or to the side. The lights were off and everything was quiet.

"Where is everyone, Barret?"

"Don't worry, everything is ok. I told Tifa to lock up tonight on account of yourself."

"Why?" Cloud was trying to see Barret's face in the heavy gloom. The bar smelled lightly of ale and Cloud felt like having a drink. He wished Tifa was standing behind the bar taking orders but there was no one in sight.

"This way," Barret whispered to Cloud in a hushed voice.

Cloud tiptoed after Barret. Barret stopped at a pinball machine and looked to be playing it but Cloud figured since he couldn't see neither could Barret.

"Stand right here," Barret whispered.

Cloud stood at the spot and Barret kept fiddling with the game until he felt a sudden but slight quake underneath his feet. He was about to walk off the spot before he realized he was being lowered down. The piece of floor they were standing on was lowering. The pinball machine was going down with them. The descending floor was barely large enough for the two and the machine but they made the short trip down to a secret room. Once they reached the bottom, Cloud could no longer see at all. He waved his hands in front of his face but he didn't see them. He really hated to be in such situations but at least he trusted Barret.

"Just wait; I'm finding the switch." After a moment, Barret pulled a chain that hung from the ceiling and a weak light turned on.

Cloud's eyes adjusted to the light and he could see they were in a very small cellar. Along the walls were expensive looking champagne bottles and different supplies of canned food and bottled water. There were a few weapons lying around, most of them looked antique and unusable.

"What are we doing down here, Barret?"

Barret didn't answer he only motioned for Cloud to be quiet. He walked into one an unoccupied corner and seemed to disappear behind the wall. Cloud shook his head and then went to investigate. In the corner, where Barret had seemed to vanish was a very heavy shroud that meshed with the wall around it. Cloud pushed through the shroud and slipped into a dark passage where Barret was waiting. There was a light shortly beyond, maybe fifteen feet down the passage. Cloud could see Barret's silhouette in the dark in the same quieting motion as he had been since they were close to the pinball machine.

Barret crept down the hall and stopped just before it opened up into the room further in. He turned his head slightly, trying to listen to some talk being spoken in the room. Cloud was behind Barret; he didn't know what was going on in the slightest. He didn't know whether he should have his weapon drawn or not. For safety's sake he pulled Buster out. Cloud was so quiet that Barret didn't hear it. Before Cloud fully understood what was going on, Barret jumped out of the hall and Cloud was right behind him.

"This is Shinra! You're all under arrest!"

Tifa and Aeris were sitting on the floor on giant cushions and there was another gentleman there who Cloud didn't know.

Cloud's sword seemed to drown out Barret's presence and everyone was looking on in horror at Cloud's sword. Barret was laughing historically and Vincent was looking from Barret to Cloud back and forth not fully realizing Barret was playing around. After calming down a bit, Barret looked back at Cloud and saw the sword sticking up in the air and he realized they had been scared by the sword and not by his shout of Shinra.

"Put that down Cloud! I was just playing."

Cloud turned angry and put his sword away. "I thought the Shinra had set up a trap for you or something!"

"Yeah, Barret, what were you thinking?" Tifa screamed angrily.

"You almost gave us a heart attack!" Said Aeris.

"Really, Barret, how childish of you."

Barret started turning red even though his complexion was dark. "Well… I was just… you know… having some fun. Come on! When was the last time I played a joke on all of you?"

"Instead of apologizing, invite your new friend, Barret." Vincent spoke in a strange dialect; maybe it was Russian, Cloud couldn't tell.