Chapter 15
Jessie and Barret took their time at lunch. The food was a little overpriced, and Jessie wanted to make sure they got their money's worth. The bar was cool and spacious, and decent music was playing on the jukebox, so at least it was comfortable.
But the company was quieter than usual. Barret wasn't as naturally talkative as she was, but he usually put in a word here and there, even when she was getting too deep into a subject he knew nothing about. Now, she wasn't even sure he was listening. Something was on his mind.
"All right," she said at last, "what is it?"
"Huh?"
"Are you still thinking about that Jenova thing?"
Barret snorted. "Hell no. I ain't even gonna try to wrap my mind around that one."
Jessie couldn't blame him. As much as she knew her mind would keep circling back to try to puzzle it out, she didn't anticipate success without new information. And what they did know was disturbing. Not exactly a pleasant thing to mull over fruitlessly.
"Is it Rufus then?" she wondered. "I'm sure we'll have other opportunities."
"Nah," Barret said. "Woulda made it a much more satisfyin' boat ride, but it wasn't why we got on in the first place."
"Are you gonna make me keep guessing?"
Barret hunched forward over the table. A man his size could never manage to look small, but he did look almost vulnerable. "Just ain't lookin' forward to where we're headed, that's all."
"Nibelheim?" No, that didn't seem right. "You mean North Corel."
He nodded.
"Is that where you're from?" Jessie ventured.
"Thereabouts," he said.
Barret never talked about his past; Jessie didn't think even Tifa knew. For the rest of them, his story began on his journey to Midgar, when he met someone from Cosmo Canyon who taught him a little about Planet life, and he resolved to fight the Shinra. They all knew he was taking vengeance for something, because nearly all of them had that kind of story, but they didn't know the details.
"If we knew more about what you're worried about," Jessie said, "then maybe we could help."
"It's just somethin' I gotta deal with on my own."
"Why?"
Barret squinted at her as though it was a stupid question.
"Well, come on. Tifa finally opened up to us about Nibelheim, and we're not letting her deal with that on her own. We didn't leave Aeris to deal with that lab on her own. We don't have a lot in this world, Barret, but we've got each other, don't we?"
"Yeah," Barret said. "We got that." He frowned into what remained of his drink. "I don't wanna get into it here. Tifa deserves to hear 'bout it, too. But I ain't expectin' any kinda welcome. I messed up, and a lotta lives got ruined because of it."
"Hey." Jessie reached across the table to touch his arm and get him to look at her. "I'm sure it's not as bad as all that."
Barret shook his head. "It's just the facts. Anybody from Corel's gonna tell you the same."
"If you say so," she said skeptically.
Barret downed the rest of his drink and got up. "C'mon, let's get outta here. I ain't a fan o' this resort town, but we oughtta look into pickin' up some supplies."
Jessie nodded and got to her feet. She liked to think she'd helped a little bit; at least he wasn't lost in thought about it anymore.
They left the bar, and they had paused outside to get their bearings when someone called out to them.
"Hey, you two!" The voice belonged to a woman sitting at the information kiosk nearby. "Are you interested in joining tomorrow's tour group to Gold Saucer? There are still a few seats left!"
"We ain't interested," Barret stated, and Jessie threw him a look.
"We might be," she amended. "Is it a direct trip?"
"No," said the woman, "but it's as close to direct as you can get! The bus takes you straight through the mountains to North Corel, where you can catch the ropeway up to Gold Saucer. It's very convenient."
"It sounds like it," said Jessie. "How much are tickets? For the bus, I mean."
"That depends! Are you two a couple?"
Jessie exchanged glances with Barret.
"Uh... yes," she said. "Is there a discount?"
"You bet! It's 100 gil per person, but there's a 30 gil discount for couples!"
"What about kids?"
"Yes, it's only 50 gil for children under fourteen."
Yuffie was definitely older than fourteen, but Jessie said, "That sounds perfect! We're travelling with another couple and my.. niece, you know, and I don't think she turns fourteen until next month."
"So you're interested in purchasing five tickets then?"
"Well..." Jessie glanced up at Barret, who had folded his arms impatiently. "Hang on a minute while I talk it over with my, uh, boyfriend. Okay?" She pulled him aside and dropped her voice. "Look, it's not a bad deal, and the sooner we get there, the less time you spend dreading it, right?"
"Seems kinda expensive for a bus," he said. "And I sure don't look like no tourist, Jess."
"We'll get you one of those flowery shirts, you'll fit right in."
Barret fixed her with a flat stare.
"Come on, I'm kidding. But do the math with me here. That bus could get us there in hours instead of days, and that's a whole trip through the Corel mountains that we won't need to buy supplies for. Plus we'll be better rested for the hike into Nibelheim, which I'm pretty sure Tifa said is a harder climb."
"I guess..."
"Joining a tour group isn't something the Shinra would expect us to do either," Jessie went on. "So if Heidegger's investigation turns up any evidence we were here, that's better for us."
Barret sighed and dropped his arms. "Yeah, all right. It's a good idea."
"Okay." Jessie walked back to the woman at the kiosk. "Sorry about that. He gets a little stingy, you know? But I sure don't want to walk all that way."
"I know, right? I can't even imagine it. Anyway, it'll be 390 gil for the five of you. And that'll just about fill us up!"
Barret paid the woman, and Jessie collected the tickets and confirmed where and when the bus would be leaving the next morning. As they turned away, Jessie spotted Tifa and Aeris headed back to the inn from the beach, arms around each other.
"Well, it looks like they won't have any trouble convincing anyone they're a couple," Jessie remarked, smiling.
"Yeah. Good for them."
Barret's tone was brusque, but Jessie knew he meant it. "We probably shouldn't head back just yet," she suggested. "Give them some privacy."
"You really think they're...?"
"Hey, I don't know, but I don't wanna walk in on anything."
Barret scratched his head. "We'll still need supplies for headin' on to Nibelheim," he said. "Don't think we're gonna find much in North Corel."
Jessie nodded her agreement, and they headed for the shops in search of climbing gear and provisions.
They took their time, and didn't return to the inn until nearly two hours later, interrupting absolutely nothing, since the room was empty. Jessie saw the clock as they came in, and something clicked in her mind.
"Oh! Barret, you wanted to call Marlene, didn't you?"
"Yeah? It's still afternoon."
"Not in Kalm it isn't. They're three or four hours ahead of us now, it'll be evening there."
"Shit," he said, already reaching to pull out his phone. "Thanks for bein' on top o' that, Jess."
He dialed Wedge, who answered promptly. "Hey, Barret. Lemme put you on speaker."
"Papa!" Marlene exclaimed, the phone picking up her voice even before Wedge switched it over. In the background, they could hear dishes clinking, as of someone cleaning up after a meal.
Barret relaxed onto the edge of one of the beds, a wide smile breaking across his face. "Hey, baby girl. Sorry we haven't been able to talk these past coupla days."
"You're off the boat now?" Marlene asked.
"Yeah! We just got into Costa del Sol this mornin.' Real sunny out here, an' I gotta take you to see the ocean first chance we get."
"Is it big?"
"So big," Barret answered. "Nothin' but blue water all the way to the horizon."
"It's not scary?"
"C'mon. I'd be with you the whole time. Nothin's scary then, is it?"
"No," Marlene confirmed with a giggle.
"So what've you been up to, huh?"
"Growin' flowers!"
"For real?"
Wedge interjected, "My brother put me to work on the farm, and Marlene wanted to help, too, so she an' Elmyra have been in the vegetable garden. I'm not sure any of them are flowers, but..."
"They're pretty though!" Marlene finished. "I wanna show Aeris."
"I'm sure she'll be real proud," Barret said.
"Is she there? Where's Tifa?"
Jessie sat down next to Barret and confided, "The two of them are on a date right now."
"Ohhhh," said Marlene. "I knew it!"
"Yeah," said Barret. "How d'you feel about that?"
"They're pretty together."
"Yeah, we're fans, too," Jessie agreed.
"If they get married," Marlene went on, "they both get to wear dresses."
Jessie bit back a laugh; how embarrassed would Tifa have been at that if she'd been here? "They would, wouldn't they?" she said.
"Might be a while 'fore that happens, though," Barret said.
"That's okay," said Marlene. "You have to save the Planet first."
Barret's smile grew bittersweet, and he said, "That's right. But then we're gonna have time for weddings an' all kinds o' nice stuff, without havin' to worry 'bout nothin.'"
"I hope it's soon. I miss you."
"I hope so, too. You know all I want in the world's to be with you there right now."
They went on talking for a little while, and Tifa and Aeris returned in time to say hello before Marlene's bedtime. For a minute, it was almost like nobody had any troubles on their mind at all. But then the call ended, and Barret's pensive demeanor returned.
Jessie looked to the others. "You two have fun?" she asked.
"Definitely," Aeris answered, and Tifa blushed. That could've meant anything, though. Jessie would have to ask her about it later.
Yuffie and Red returned shortly, the former looking triumphant, and the latter rather less so. Jessie was surprised if they'd stuck together all day, but maybe Red had just needed her to open the doors for him.
"And what have you been up to?" she asked.
"We went around to some of the classier resorts and dazzled people with the smartest dog on the Planet," Yuffie said.
"You really went along with that, Red?" Aeris asked in surprise.
His ears twitched, and he said, "It was demeaning, but I was concerned for our funds. Speaking of which, we agreed half the take is rightfully mine, Yuffie."
"Of course, but you need someone to hold onto it for you, don't you?"
"Yes. Would you kindly give it to Tifa?"
"What? Come on, don't you trust me?"
He cocked his head at her, regarding her with his one eye. "Certainly not with my money, after today."
"All right, all right," Yuffie grumbled. She counted out a sum of gil and started to hold it out to Tifa.
"My half ought to be 800," Red said mildly.
Yuffie shot him a quick frown, and added a few more coins before handing it over.
"Thank you, Red," said Tifa.
"Hey, it was my idea!" Yuffie protested.
"Well, I guess it helped," was all Tifa amended it to, and Yuffie folded her arms. Maybe it was a little mean, but she was the only one of them not pooling their funds. Not that Jessie expected that to change any time soon... or possibly ever.
"It definitely got us enough to cover the next leg of the trip," Jessie offered instead.
"Oh?" Tifa wondered.
"There's a tour bus headed over the mountains tomorrow morning-- you know, so people can go to Gold Saucer. Barret and I already picked up tickets for us. As far as the tour company's concerned, we're a couple, you two are a couple, Yuffie, you're my almost-fourteen-year-old niece, and... sorry, Red, but you'll probably have to be our dog again."
"Fourteen?" Yuffie repeated in affront.
"Almost fourteen," Aeris corrected helpfully.
"There was a discount," Jessie explained.
All offense immediately vanished from Yuffie's face and she relaxed in complete understanding. "Oh. Then you got it, Aunt Jessie, I'm absolutely thirteen."
"Well, at least one of those things is true," Aeris said, favoring Tifa with a smile, "but you're looking a little grumpy for a tourist, Barret. Is everything all right?"
Barret let out a long sigh and glanced at Jessie. She nodded in encouragement.
"All right," he said. "All right. Guess I've put this off long enough."
"Huh?" said Yuffie, glancing at the rest of them in confusion. "What's going on?"
"Tomorrow we're gonna be passin' through North Corel," Barret explained. "It ain't my hometown, but it's where most people wound up, after."
"After..." Aeris repeated. She sat down on the other bed. "This is another sad story we're about to hear, isn't it?"
"Yeah," he said. "My real hometown, Corel, used to be farther south. It was a coal mining town... It was dangerous, dirty work, an' we were makin' less an' less out of it, with more people turnin' to Mako. So when the Shinra showed up, offerin' us jobs with them if we let 'em build on our land... I thought it was a good deal. Hell, I campaigned for 'em, tried to convince my best friend Dyne to go along with it. An' in the end, he was the only one against it. Got outvoted."
"So they built the reactor," Jessie concluded. She knew there was one in the Corel area; it was probably the one powering the lights in the room they sat in now.
"With our help," Barret confirmed ruefully. "But then, not long after... Dyne an' me were outta town when it happened. There was an explosion at the reactor. Shinra blamed it on our town, said it was done by a rebel faction. By the time I made it back, Shinra troops had the whole town up in flames."
"Just like Nibelheim..." Tifa murmured.
Barret nodded. "My wife Myrna, my whole family... they all died in the fire."
Jessie rested a hand on his back. "I'm so sorry, Barret. That's awful."
No one said anything, until Aeris asked, "What about Dyne?"
"We ran into Shinra soldiers, on the way back to town. Dyne got shot, fell into a ravine... I tried to save 'im, but... That's how my arm got messed up." He looked down at it, lifting it as though in memory of some gesture, and then let it drop back into his lap. "His wife died in the fire, too, but Marlene... Somehow she survived. I knew I owed it to Dyne, to take care o' her. It was my fault, all o' that happened."
"Yeah," said Yuffie. "That was pretty stupid of you, trusting the Shinra."
"Yuffie!" Tifa exclaimed, and Jessie looked at her sharply.
"No," said Barret. "She's right. I shoulda known better than to think a bunch o' rich folks in fancy suits would really wanna do anything for the likes of us."
Jessie shook her head, frowning. "I'm sorry, Barret, but she's not right. Yuffie, if you're from Wutai, then you grew up someplace where Shinra was always the enemy. But they always present themselves as friends first, they always sound like they've got a good deal to offer. And for every story like ours, there's somebody out there living in luxury and convenience, just like they promised."
"No way," Yuffie said, stubbornly folding her arms. "You don't get a pass on that. The Shinra came to us with the same bullshit offer, wanting our land for their stupid reactors, and we saw 'em for what they were. If it weren't for you guys rolling over and letting them do what they want, they wouldn't have half so much power as they've got now."
"...that's rather harsh of you," Red remarked.
"Yeah, well, I wasn't about to sugarcoat it."
Jessie looked down at the floor. No sympathy, huh? She wondered if Yuffie was right. Could they have seen Shinra for what it was, back then, if they'd wanted to? Did some of the blame fall on them, for letting themselves be fooled by empty promises? For wanting a nice life, without having to put in work to get there?
"But you know," Yuffie ventured into the silence, "you guys've turned it around now. So I guess I can forgive ya."
Jessie looked back up at her, and managed a small, appreciative smile.
"Well, that's more 'n I can say for myself," Barret said.
"Come on, Barret," said Tifa. "What did you say after Sector 7? It's the Shinra who are to blame. Maybe we were naive in the past, but... we're not responsible for the people they've killed. That was their choice."
"I agree," said Aeris. "And even as someone who's always known about the Shinra... They make it their business to hide that as much as possible." She glanced at Tifa. "That's all SOLDIER and the Turks are for anymore, isn't it? To hide the evidence."
Jessie nodded. "And they're good at it. Yuffie's the only one of us who'd heard about Nibelheim, and none of us knew about Corel. You couldn't have known."
"Look," said Barret. "I appreciate you all wantin' to make excuses for me, but I'm always gonna see it as somethin' I gotta atone for. That's just how it is."
"Then we'll help you do that," Tifa decided.
"Yeah," said Jessie. "Everything we're doing as AVALANCHE-- that should balance it out, shouldn't it?"
"I think it should be more than enough," said Aeris.
Barret looked between the three of them, and he nodded. He didn't express any thanks aloud, but Jessie could tell. It meant a lot to him to have their support.
"Man, you guys are depressing though," said Yuffie. "Do any of you come from a place that still exists?"
Jessie exchanged glances with Barret and Tifa.
"Sector 5 is still standing," Aeris offered.
"My hometown as well," said Red.
"And where's that?" Yuffie wondered.
Jessie didn't expect Red to answer, but he sat back on his haunches and curled his tail neatly about his paws. "Cosmo Canyon," he said.
Barret perked up. "Shit, Cosmo Canyon? You been from there this whole time and you never said anything?"
"I saw no reason to. When you all made the decision to go to Nibelheim, I assumed we would part ways there. It's near enough I can go the rest of the way on my own."
"What exactly does Cosmo Canyon mean to you, Barret?" Aeris wondered.
"The place is famous for the study of Planet life," he explained. "I always wanted to go there."
"Barret used to say we'd go there to celebrate, once we saved the Planet," Jessie added. "All of us together..."
Now, Biggs would never get to see it.
"I think he'd still like for you to go," Aeris said, "wouldn't he?"
Jessie nodded.
"I am sure," said Red, "that as those fighting for the Planet, you would be welcome."
"You havin' a change o' heart, cat?" Barret wondered. "Thought you weren't too fond of us."
Red's ears flicked. "Nicknames aside, you all have been... more considerate than I expected. I couldn't have come this far without your help."
"Any chance that means we get to know your name?" Tifa asked.
He cocked his head to the side, considering it. "I suppose," he said carefully, "that if you were to come to Cosmo Canyon, you might learn it anyway. My name is Nanaki."
"Nanaki," Aeris repeated with a smile. "It's nice to finally know that."
"Yeah," said Barret. "Welcome to the team, cat. Shit, I mean Nanaki."
"It feels like AVALANCHE is growing, doesn't it?" said Jessie.
"Oh. I finally get the name," said Yuffie. "I don't know if I'd call myself, like, a member though. More like an ally."
Nanaki nodded in agreement. "Yes, I think membership may be premature. But allies, certainly."
"Well, AVALANCHE ain't never really had allies before," Barret said. "I'm callin' it a win."
Jessie smiled, because it was good to hear him thinking positively about something. Funny that Nanaki would be the one to do it, but there was a strong appeal to where he came from, and what it represented. Certainly none of them had come to this seeking fame or praise, but after all they'd been through, a little validation might be nice. And maybe, being in a place where their efforts might actually be respected would help them all to forgive themselves.