Chapter 5
The truck driver dropped them off within sight of Kalm and then continued east into the farmlands. They stood on the side of the road stretching, looking up at the fortress walls on the hill. Barret wondered if anyone had ever considered using those walls to defend against Shinra.
Tifa took him aside.
"I think I should hang back with Elena," she said.
Barret frowned, but her proposal wasn't unexpected. He'd been pondering the problem throughout the ride. They couldn't let Shinra know where they took Marlene, and the Turk had been a little too cooperative ever since she'd realized they were leaving town.
"Yeah," he sighed. "She's probably been waitin' to figure out where we're headed before she makes a break for it. Must be embarrassing for a Turk to get caught, but if she's got somethin' to show for it..."
"So you guys go on. I'll camp out here and wait for you."
"You sure you can manage her all by yourself?"
Tifa tucked her hair behind her ear. "Wedge needs to show you the way, and you can't say goodbye to Marlene here. I'll figure it out."
"I can help!" Johnny cut in.
Barret jumped, turning. He'd thought the punk was saying goodbye to his parents, not eavesdropping.
"I can help," Johnny repeated. "You just need a second pair of eyes to watch her, right?"
"Are you sure?" Tifa wondered.
"It's the least I can do with you looking after my folks," he said. "And it's not like I have anywhere to be in a hurry."
Barret exchanged glances with Tifa. Johnny wasn't exactly the most reliable guy, but he was loyal enough when it came to Tifa. He could probably be counted on enough to buy her time to nap.
"I appreciate that, Johnny," she said.
Tifa said her goodbyes to Marlene with a levity Barret hoped his daughter couldn't tell was forced. "See you soon," she said, but it wouldn't be soon by Marlene's understanding, and maybe not soon at all.
Should he have asked Tifa to stay with her? She'd never have agreed to it.
Wedge, on the other hand...
He led them south along a dirt road that saw little enough traffic for weeds to grow up between the tire tracks. The heat of the afternoon sun gave Mrs. Sanford something new to complain about, though she did it with a laugh. Sunlight was a treasure, even with a little discomfort.
They went on until sunset, then stopped to make camp.
"This's your chance to get out, you know," Barret said to Wedge at last as night fell. "You could stay with your brother, and not worry about any more o' this shit."
Wedge gave him a knowing look. "You're worried about Marlene, aren't you?"
"Hey!"
"It's okay," said Wedge. "It's not like it didn't cross my mind. But... I know I don't count for much, but if there's any chance we can still save Jessie, I wanna help."
"The hell're you talkin' about?"
"Huh?"
"Don't count for much?" Barret repeated incredulously. He gestured to the Sanfords, and Marlene. "They'd all be dead if it weren't for you. Must be hard feelin' like a hero when you compare it to how many we didn't save, but even one life's a big deal, man. Remember that."
"...thanks, Barret."
The grasslands made for easy walking. The ground was level, and Marlene preferred not to be carried most of the time. She trotted along picking wildflowers that grew at the side of the road, and whenever they stopped for a rest, she'd peer intently into the grass to watch the insects. She'd exclaim over any wildlife they saw, and thankfully they were far enough from the wastes now that monsters were few and far between. Barret's gun-arm frightened off the few levrikons that ventured close.
They camped three nights under the stars, and on the morning of the third day, they came in sight of the farm. They let Wedge go on ahead so as not to alarm his brother with a crowd of strangers descending on his house, but he welcomed them all affably enough, warning them only that all of the spare rooms were a mess. Mr. Sanford declared that after so many days of roughing it, that wouldn't be a problem.
"So if you came from Midgar," said Derek, "then is it really true, everything they're saying on the news?"
"Sector 7's gone," Wedge confirmed soberly, "but it didn't happen like they said."
"And President Shinra?"
They all stared at him.
"What about President Shinra?" Barret asked.
Derek switched on the radio so they could listen for themselves, and they sat dumbfounded around his kitchen table while he laid out bread and fresh fruit for them. Only Marlene ate anything at first.
According to the news, AVALANCHE had snuck into Shinra headquarters the night after the plate fell and murdered President Shinra. Mr. and Mrs. Sanford both glanced at them during the report, but they all knew the timing didn't fit. During the alleged murder, AVALANCHE had been miles away walking across the plains.
"Could it have been... you know... that woman the Turks picked up?" Wedge proposed.
"One woman to take on Shinra headquarters?" Barret said skeptically.
"Maybe she's part of some group."
"Another anti-Shinra group?" Barret shook his head. "Feels like we would've heard of somethin' like that." AVALANCHE had put themselves out there. They had a network of contacts throughout the city. There'd been nothing.
"Yeah," Wedge agreed. "But who could've done it?"
Barret almost didn't mind this getting pinned on them, if it weren't for the motive behind the frame job. Whoever was pointing the finger at AVALANCHE had to know it wasn't them. So why protect the real perpetrator?
He rubbed his beard thoughtfully. "Maybe it was a coup."
"A coup?"
"If the President's dead, then his son takes over," Barret reasoned. "Heard he's been assigned someplace else for a long time 'cause they don't get along. Maybe he got tired of playin' second fiddle an' saw an opportunity."
"A chance to take a page out of his father's book and pin it on AVALANCHE..."
"You really think...?" Mr. Sanford began, and then stopped. It would probably take him a while longer to swallow exactly what Shinra was, but the facts in front of him said at the very least they were liars. How much were they lying about?
Barret shrugged. "Just a theory. We got no idea what happened, an' I'd really like to know exactly who we're takin' credit from."
"We should get back to Tifa," said Wedge. "She doesn't know."
"But she is with somebody who could find out," said Barret.
Wedge met his gaze with a nod. Turks were privy to exactly those kinds of truths, and even if Elena herself wouldn't cooperate, they had her PHS and her ID badge, and that might get them somewhere.
As he helped clear the table after their simple breakfast, Barret couldn't help wondering how it had happened. The news wasn't giving out any details. Had it been quick and painless, a bullet to the head? Had they dropped him off the side of his glorious tower? Barret hoped he'd had time to feel fear. After what he'd done to Sector 7, he didn't deserve to go out peacefully.
Barret had spotted a few chocobos in a pen outside, but Derek couldn't spare them. Instead he pointed them to an old truck and said they were welcome to it if they could get it running. He'd given up on it, and it had never been as reliable as the birds.
Barret hadn't worked on a car in a long time. Most folks in Corel had known their way around an engine, but they weren't much use in the narrow streets of the slums, and most of what you found down there were total junkers. A few eccentrics enjoyed tinkering with them, but they were more use for parts and, sometimes, shelter.
He'd had two hands, last time he'd worked on a car. But Wedge made up the difference, following his direction as they tried to work out the problem.
Marlene played in the grass nearby, inexpertly twining together chains of flowers and rushing over to him when she found a particularly magnificent beetle to ask him what it was called. This was the life he wanted for her, carefree under the sun, exploring wherever her curiosity took her. He wished he could stay here with her now.
But as lush and green as the farm was, as he scanned the horizon, he counted only a handful of trees. The Midgar wastes stretched farther every year, and eventually, left unchecked, they'd swallow this place, too. If he quit AVALANCHE to settle down with his daughter, he'd be forfeiting her future for a few happy years now. That was a worse betrayal than the one he'd brought her here for.
"So, what was it like growin' up here?" he asked Wedge.
Wedge glanced at Marlene. "You're not about to propose I stay behind again, are you?"
"No. Just hard to figure why anyone'd wanna leave."
"I guess it seems like paradise after Midgar," Wedge conceded. "Hardly anybody around besides us, though."
"You get lonely out here?" Barret ventured. Wedge was definitely a people person.
"Hmm." Wedge set a wrench aside and wiped grease from his hands. "I think maybe I made a stupid choice to try to fix a complicated problem, you know? When Dad left us the farm, we found out it was drowning in debt. I think Mom was the one with a head for numbers, but we were still kids when she passed, and Dad didn't wanna ask us for help. And later, I don't know, maybe he was embarrassed."
"...definitely the kinda thing a father feels shame over," Barret agreed. He thought of his own father and the long months an injury had kept him out of the mines. Barret had been almost old enough to work then--but only almost. His father had forbade him from lying his way down there. It wasn't his responsibility, he insisted.
Until it was.
"Anyway," Wedge went on, "I got it into my head if I got a job in the city, that could solve everything. There was good work there, I'd send money home, we'd dig ourselves out. But uh, you know that's not how it went."
"Did you ever get any kinda job, 'fore AVALANCHE?"
Wedge shrugged. "I was a stock boy, for a while. I guess I could've come back home, but... I'm the older brother, you know? I was supposed to make it work."
"From where I'm standin', I'm glad you stuck around," said Barret. "An' it seems like Derek did okay in the end."
Wedge nodded. "Yeah. I'm glad."
"You didn't know?"
"Not the details. We kept in touch for a while, but I stopped writing once I joined AVALANCHE."
Barret eyed him. "Were you worried he could get in trouble?" He'd always thought of Wedge as the most wide-eyed and optimistic about what they did and who they were. That kind of precaution seemed unlike him.
"It crossed my mind later, I guess," Wedge said. "But at the time I just didn't want him to talk me out of it. I thought he'd say... I was just having delusions of grandeur again. I couldn't even keep a job, why did I think I could save the Planet?"
"Just met the guy, but that don't sound like somethin' he'd say."
"Probably not," Wedge admitted with a sheepish laugh. "I just read that stuff into everything, back then."
Barret wasn't convinced it was entirely a thing of the past. He gave Wedge an encouraging nudge with his shoulder. "Well, I don't think we're delusional. Hope not, anyway."
Wedge smiled. "Yeah. Someone's gotta save the Planet, right? If not us, then who?"
They got the engine to turn over as the sun was passing its zenith. Barret let out a whoop and Wedge grinned back at him.
"Guess we'll grab lunch and head out?" said Wedge.
Barret's grin faded. Marlene had trotted over at the noise, eyes curious and expectant. Flowers sat lopsidedly in her hair.
"...nah," he said. "Nah, we'll head out tomorrow."
He couldn't afford years of ignorant bliss, but he could give his daughter an afternoon. Especially with the future so uncertain.
Just a few days ago, he'd balked at leaving her with the Sanfords for a night. Now he didn't know how long he'd be giving her up to their care. Sector 7 had been a wake-up call; he'd always known he led a dangerous life, but he'd fooled himself into thinking he could keep Marlene safe from it. When he held her, he felt the size of his own body like a shield. He was determined that nothing ever touch her.
That wasn't reality. He couldn't fight and protect her at once. There was no safe place for her with him as long as he battled Shinra, as long as Shinra could come down on any place he took refuge. Corel, Sector 7... It was safer for her with strangers. He hated it. It was true.
But for one afternoon, he tried not to think about it. They ate lunch on the back porch of the farmhouse, and this time Barret really savored it. The clean well water, the perfectly ripe tomato in his sandwich, the snap of fresh okra that the Sanfords had picked less than an hour ago. Even Marlene was willing to try it, charmed by the novelty of a vegetable that had come off of a living stem instead of out of a can.
He took her out to the chocobo paddock, and they fed the birds treats through the fence until Derek came to put one of them to work. At his suggestion, they walked the grassy paths between vegetable plots gathering dandelions for wine. Marlene would never taste the finished product, but she delighted at the yellow stains they left on her hands.
Barret had never imagined himself as a farmer, but being surrounded by all of it made him long for a garden. A garden would be real nice, one day.
Wedge and Mrs. Sanford had spent the afternoon tackling the spare bedrooms, clearing junk off the beds and piling dusty sheets into a basket for tomorrow's washing. Barret could have spread his bedroll on one of the bare mattresses for the night, but Marlene wanted to spend one more out under the stars. Eagerly she pointed out the Weaver and the Crown of Bahamut, among the brightest of the constellations and the first he'd been able to show her. Barret told her the stories he knew, and wondered how many in Midgar even remembered their names.
The shadow of the farmhouse kept them from waking with the sun, and they went inside to find Wedge helping his brother make omelets. Barret felt a pang as he realized some part of him expected to find Biggs and Jessie at the table cracking jokes. He bade the Sanfords good morning with a forced smile.
He wasn't eager to get going, but he knew they had to. He caught Wedge watching him, and after they'd finished eating, Wedge announced, "Well, I guess I'll go load up the truck."
Marlene looked to Barret. "Are we leaving?"
He didn't answer her right away. "C'mere, baby girl," he said. He took her hand and led her out onto the porch. The morning sun climbed higher, shortening the shadows.
Barret knelt to Marlene's level. "Me an' Wedge are headin' back to meet up with Tifa," he said. "You're gonna stay right here, with Johnny's folks to look after you."
"And then you're coming back with Tifa?"
"...no." Her face crumpled, and he let out a heavy sigh. "I want to, all right? It's beautiful here. I wish we could all just stay here an' spend every day like yesterday."
"Why can't we?"
"'cause if we do that..." If they did that, then it wouldn't last. "...then nobody's out there fightin' for the Planet. And we gotta keep fightin' to keep you an' places like this safe."
Marlene folded her arms, pouting. "Somebody else should do it," she said. "Then you could stay."
"An' who's gonna do that?" Barret asked her gently.
"...Johnny said he'd help."
He chuckled. "Well, maybe he can. But he can't do it all on his own, see? The more folks join together, the stronger we are, and the sooner we win. An' then I'm comin' straight back."
Marlene looked at him for a long moment. She was too young to understand the calculation he made, why he had to sacrifice the present for the future, and gods, he couldn't entirely wrap his head around it either. Doing the right thing shouldn't have felt so awful. But he hoped she understood that he did everything out of love.
"...you promise?" she said at last.
"Promise," he said. "The second the Planet's safe, ain't nothin' gonna keep us apart."
Marlene nodded. "Okay."
Barret pulled her into his arms, and she wrapped hers around his neck. "You try not to get up to too much trouble, all right? Be sure an' listen to Derek. He knows all about this farm, so he can teach you all sorts o' things an' make sure you stay safe."
"I will."
"I love you so much. I'm gonna be thinkin' about you every day."
"I love you, too, Papa. Don't cry."
It was harder to leave her than it had ever been. Ever since Corel, they'd never been apart for more than a day. He'd always known exactly when he'd be able to rush back to her. She'd kept him going when he had nothing else. Being her protector had kept him going.
And now he was handing that off to someone else.
No, just a part of it. He was still fighting for her future, her world, her family. Jessie was family. And if they could get her back, then the four of them could rethink their strategy against this new Shinra under Rufus. They'd figure things out together, and at the end of it, he'd come back.