Chapter 7
They made it through the pass before the old truck gave out on them. It had struggled on the uphill drive, and on the way down into the river valley beyond, it was only gravity that kept it running. Once the road levelled out again, the engine sputtered out, and that was the end of it. Barret wasted an hour poking around under the hood, but in the end, they unloaded their gear and their Turk and pushed the truck off the road into the trees.
He told himself it had shaved a few days off their journey, but Junon was still a long way on foot. Maybe they could commandeer something along the way, but Shinra vehicles weren't likely to travel solo, and he didn't fancy the idea of stealing from regular folk.
Could he afford scruples like that when it was Jessie's life at stake? It was his talk, his veneer of idealism that had gotten her into AVALANCHE, his plans that had gotten her caught up in this mess.
Or would she be offended by that line of thinking? Jessie wasn't stupid. All of them had been in it together, right?
Barret had never been completely honest with them about his reasons.
They made camp that night just north of the river, close enough that Barret could make out the rush of water now and again beneath the night sounds. He tried to remember if he'd camped around here on his way to Midgar, four years ago. He'd been driven by a desperate determination then, an anger that had only recently shaped itself into a new right arm and hadn't yet found a target.
Without Marlene to temper it, that anger might have burned itself out a lot quicker. He might not have lasted to form AVALANCHE at all, much less get any of them killed. But even if he could see different avenues for himself, he knew Shinra wouldn't change.
That was what it all came back to. He'd fucked up, but they still had to keep going. Someone had to make Shinra change--to tear it apart so that all the people who made it up became something else entirely.
In the morning, they set off again. Barret brought up the rear, keeping an eye on Elena (who he couldn't damn well carry the entire way) and feeling exposed across the long span of bridge over the river. There was no way to get off the road if an approaching vehicle turned out to be Shinra.
Tifa was setting a quick pace, though her chatter with Wedge sounded deceptively unconcerned.
"Sorry, I don't think I'm following," she was saying. "How do you... interface with it?"
"Ahhh, Jessie would explain it better," said Wedge. "I barely know how to use it myself. The guys in the neighborhood watch only had a couple materia to practice with."
Tifa hummed thoughtfully. "Well, then I guess I'll ask her! Why don't you hang onto these for now?"
In front of him, Elena squared her shoulders as Tifa passed the Turk's materia bangle back to Wedge. Elena let out a loud humph, but neither of them glanced back at her.
"Bet you're an expert with those, huh?" said Barret. "Spent years in some kinda special Shinra program."
"I bet you didn't even go to any kind of school," Elena retorted.
"You'd be wrong there. Good thing we didn't actually wager nothin'."
They were off the bridge, but Barret's relief was short-lived--he could already hear engines somewhere behind them.
"Let's move it!" he said.
He gave Elena a shove with his gun-arm, and she stumbled ahead of him towards the trees. Just as Tifa and Wedge were reaching cover ahead, Elena spun and bolted.
"Hey!" Barret missed grabbing her, and Tifa raced after. He caught her up just as Elena made it back to the bridge and lifted an arm to wave to the approaching vehicles. When had she gotten her hands free?
Tifa skidded to a stop, and he bumped into her from behind.
"If we grab her now, they'll see us," she said. The vehicles were barely specks, but by the sound there were too many to be anything but a Shinra convoy. If only they'd been in a better position, they might've scouted it for any sign of Jessie.
"She's gonna tell 'em to come after us," Barret said. It was lose-lose, but if they ran now, they'd at least have a head start and no captive to slow them down. "C'mon, let's go!"
Tifa nodded and they ran back down from the bridge. "Wedge, go!" Barret called to him, and he preceded them into the woods. The three of them crashed through the undergrowth; their trail was obvious, but Shinra troops could be lazy as fuck. Elena didn't have any proof of her identity beyond the suit, and maybe she wouldn't have the sway to get them to do more than a cursory sweep.
His hopes fizzled. The temperature dropped, and in their path formed a huge ice crystal. Wedge yelped, stumbled, and pivoted in a different direction--but Barret heard their pursuers too close already.
He spun, dropping his bag and raising his gun-arm. There were only two men, but they were armored and carried the huge swords that marked them for members of SOLDIER. Their uniforms were a deep blue, but Barret didn't know how to distinguish their rank. Still, SOLDIERs of any rank were bad news.
"Shit," he cursed, and opened fire.
Apparently those big swords weren't just for show; both men lifted the flats in front of them like shields, and his bullets pinged against the metal.
The second Barret let up, one leapt forward to bring his sword down on Tifa. The blade buried itself into the ground as she dodged aside, and she moved closer to get in a few blows. The man pulled his sword free with one hand while he shoved her with the other, slamming her back into a tree.
"Tifa!"
But the second SOLDIER was on him. Barret got his gun-arm up in time for the blade to glance off of it. Out of the corner of his eye he caught the flash of another ice spell, but this one from Wedge. He was there to back up Tifa, so Barret focused on his own opponent.
The guy was fast, and the best Barret could do was keep his gun-arm between himself and the sword. He got in a shot or two, but he couldn't aim well, and the bullets hit armor. There just wasn't enough space to move! His foot caught a root as he stepped back, and his stomach leapt into his throat.
"Hey! What're you doing!?" It was a girl's voice, unfamiliar. The next second, a red blur flew out of nowhere and slammed into the SOLDIER in front of him, tackling the man aside.
Barret recovered himself and tracked the movement: some red-furred beast had tackled the SOLDIER to the ground. As he tried to push it off, it sank its teeth into his forearm.
No time to question it. Barret lined up a shot and fired. One man down.
He whirled, looking for Tifa. She was on the move, using the terrain to her advantage and keeping the trees between herself and the SOLDIER's sword. Wedge had unslung his machine gun, but unable to get a clear shot, he seemed to be focusing on another spell.
Unfortunately so was the SOLDIER. A bolt spell crashed down on Tifa, dropping her as her muscles seized.
"Hey! Over here, asshole!" Barret shouted, firing to draw the SOLDIER's attention. The man glanced at him, and missed seeing the bladed weapon that flew out of the trees to strike him in the helmet.
He staggered sideways, and the red beast rushed past Barret to throw his weight into the SOLDIER and bring him down. Barret raced after. This time the SOLDIER managed to kick the beast off, but Tifa showed up to plant her heel on his wrist before he could lift his sword, and Barret fired a burst into his chest. He lay still.
"Is that... is that it?" Wedge asked, coming up to join them.
"Think so," Barret said, glancing around. He still didn't see their other unexpected back-up. "Hey! You wanna come out now?"
A figure dropped down out of the branches above. Barret pegged her for a teenager, short and skinny, but while her clothes could've belonged to any Midgar teen, you couldn't find armor like that anywhere around here. He didn't recognize the four-pointed weapon she was holding either.
"I wasn't really planning on saving your asses," she said, "but you're welcome."
Barret raised an eyebrow. "Uh, thanks."
"Really, though," Tifa added. "Thank you."
"No biggie." Attempting nonchalance, she knelt by the dead SOLDIER, but her fingers hesitated before she pulled the materia out of his sword. This kid had never killed anyone.
"What're you doin' out here on your own?" Barret asked her.
"Taking a bite outta Shinra, what's it look like?"
"You've fought Shinra before?" Tifa asked.
"Well... Not these guys," the teen admitted. "There's been more traffic lately and it's not so hard raiding supplies." So that was why she'd been nearby, probably watching the road from her treetop vantage.
"You haven't seen them transporting any prisoners, have you?" Wedge asked.
"Uhh, don't think so."
Tifa smiled and stepped forward, extending a hand. "I'm Tifa," she said. "We should probably start with that. This is Barret and Wedge."
"Yuffie," the teen answered. She eyed Tifa's hand before deciding to give it a quick shake.
"An' this guy?" Barret wondered, nodding down at the red-furred animal.
"I've just been calling him Red for now," said Yuffie. "He's had opinions about every other name I've come up with. He's really smart."
Tifa turned to kneel down in front of the beast. "Shake hands?" she offered.
It gave her a look and padded over to stand beside Yuffie.
"I said he's smart, not obedient."
"You just found him somewhere?" Wedge asked, and she shrugged in confirmation.
"...what is it?" Barret asked finally.
"I dunno!" said Yuffie. "At first I thought some new breed of guard dog, but the jewelry and stuff doesn't exactly scream Shinra."
"Maybe some rich asshole's pet?" Barret suggested.
Red growled, baring his teeth.
"I think he likes that idea about as much as he likes Shinra," said Yuffie.
Barret glanced in the direction of the road. "Speakin' o' which, we oughtta get a move on. Don't know how long we got before they decide they might wanna send somebody else after us."
"Good idea," Tifa agreed.
Yuffie fell in with them, and before long she and Red were leading the way, picking a path through the trees. If she'd been hanging around the area, maybe she had a camp she was headed back to.
"So what beef do you guys have with Shinra anyway?" Yuffie asked.
Tifa glanced at Barret, and he nodded; this kid was no friend to Shinra. "We're AVALANCHE," said Tifa.
Yuffie spun around to walk backwards. "Seriously? You guys killed President Shinra?"
"The news ain't exactly been accurate lately," Barret said flatly.
"We only bombed the reactors," Wedge added. "The rest is just Shinra pinning it on us."
"So who did kill the President?"
Tifa shrugged. "We don't know. We'd like to find out, but..."
"Shinra captured one of our own," Barret finished. "That takes priority."
Yuffie nodded, turning back around. "The prisoner you were asking about. You think they're taking 'em to Junon?"
"Shinra said there'd be a special event. With everything they've been blamin' on AVALANCHE these days, they're gonna want somethin' to show for it. Make folks think they're workin' on a solution."
"You've got a long way to go if you're hoping to get to Junon on foot," Yuffie observed skeptically.
"Our truck broke down," Barret explained. "We're open to suggestions."
"The river'd be faster."
"We don't got a boat."
"You don't, but I do," said Yuffie. "I could let you use it, for the right price."
"Tch." Maybe she wasn't on anyone's side but her own. "An' what price is that?"
"5000 gil."
"5000!" Barret repeated incredulously. "We could buy our own damn boat for that. No way. 500."
Yuffie spun around again. "500! After I just saved your asses!?"
"The dog did most of the work!"
"Are you saying he doesn't deserve to get paid?"
"The hell's he gonna do with 5000 gil?"
"Um," Tifa broke in. "The thing is, we really don't have that kind of money."
"You got any materia?" Yuffie asked. She looked directly at Wedge as she said it; she already knew the answer to that.
Barret didn't know how to use materia, but he knew the Ice Materia Wedge was carrying wasn't worth much more than 500. The other one, though, he'd never seen sold around the slums, and it might be rare. It'd make sense for Turks to carry more exclusive equipment.
Wedge fingered the two materia in his bangle, glanced at Tifa, and then popped one of them out. "Well... I don't really have the hang of this one anyway. So it's yours, if you want it."
Yuffie snatched it, turned it over in her fingers, and then nodded. "This'll do. I'll get you guys to Junon. I even know how to get inside the base."
"We appreciate that," said Tifa. When Barret shot her a look, she returned it with a shrug and wry smile. He guessed she was right; they didn't need to go on antagonizing the kid as long as she was helping them out.
"So, Yuffie," said Wedge, "what do you have against Shinra anyway?"
"What, you don't trust me?"
"No, I was just wondering. It's gotta be something big if you've been out here fighting them on your own."
"We don't gotta swap sob stories," Yuffie said easily. "I don't know why you guys were bombing reactors either."
"That was for the Planet," said Wedge, and Red glanced back at him as though he'd understood the words.
"The Planet?" Yuffie asked.
"Mako is made from the lifeblood of the Planet. If the reactors keep sucking it up like they are, they're gonna kill it."
"Huh." Yuffie seemed to accept that at face value, without bringing up any of Shinra's talking points about the safety and renewability of Mako. Instead she asked, "What happens when a planet dies exactly?"
"So does everything else," Barret answered grimly. "Don't know if you've seen the Midgar wastes, but that's just a prelude. Planet can't support life when all its energy's bein' drained out."
Yuffie flung up her arms. "Man, they really are stupid, aren't they?"
"Yeah, it's fuckin' short-sighted, but they don't care about who comes after. Just so long as they can live it up with more gil than a man could count."
"...yeah," Yuffie agreed more quietly.
Barret wasn't going to press the issue, but he did wonder about her background. She hated Shinra, but she didn't seem familiar with their propaganda, so she didn't come from anywhere they'd moved in with one of their reactors. But she didn't know even the basics of planetology, so that wasn't her motivation either.
Maybe the impact was less direct. Shinra disrupted local economies all the time with their so-called progress. Maybe her raids on Shinra and the 5000 gil were for a hometown that was failing. Or maybe she'd left a place like that behind, and the funds were just for herself. Could he fault the kid for that, if she was on her own?
"We're going to stop them, though," said Tifa into the short silence. Barret could tell she was saying it as much for herself as for the rest of them.
"Are you gonna blow up the rest of the reactors?" Yuffie asked.
"...might not be the best strategy, right now," Barret admitted. "An' we don't got a handle yet on how Rufus's gonna run things."
"You think he's gonna be any different from his old man?"
Barret shrugged. "Not really. But he might come at it from a different angle."
"Maybe you'll get a shot at him in Junon," Yuffie suggested, "an' then you won't have to find out."
Barret exchanged glances with Tifa. He hadn't really considered that. A move like that felt beyond them right now, and with Elena escaping, going in at all was risky enough. She'd let Shinra know they were coming.
So they couldn't be tempted. He had to hope Shinra wouldn't be able to predict how they were coming. They'd get in and get Jessie and get out. Rufus would have to wait.
Barret could hear the river not far away through the trees, and at last Yuffie led them down to the shore, where they found a small sailing barge at the end of a short dock. A dirt path led back up away from the dock, but it was overgrown. Nobody but Yuffie had used this place for at least a season.
"Where'd you get this boat anyhow?" Barret asked her.
"I borrowed it," she answered. He arched an eyebrow at her, but she declined to elaborate on whether that was a euphemism for stealing it. "You guys know anything about boating?"
Barret exchanged glances with the others.
"Not really," said Tifa.
Yuffie's shoulders slumped. "Not the answer I was hoping for."
"...you do know how to sail this thing, don't you?" Barret prompted. She hadn't just led them to some boat she knew was docked here, had she?
"Yeah, but..." Yuffie made a face. "Never mind. Everybody on, and I don't want any judgment."
"The hell's that supposed to mean?" Barret muttered, but he headed down the short dock and climbed aboard. He helped Tifa up after him. Red leapt aboard in an elegant bound, and Wedge followed.
Yuffie came last, untying the boat and then jumping aboard as it began to drift with the current. She crossed the deck towards the single furled sail, and she did move like someone who knew what she was doing, even if there was an odd set to her jaw. Barret opted to keep out of her way.
They didn't need to move against the current; the river itself would carry them out to the bay just north of Junon, but the wind would get them there a little faster. Yuffie claimed she knew the way onto the base, so maybe she'd made the trip before. He could see evidence of her earlier raids on Shinra in some of the small crates stowed aboard along with her gear.
"Ugh, okay." Yuffie secured a line and then moved to sit down near the side of the boat. She looked a little green. "The river current's... pretty steady. It's an easy ride most of the way."
"...do you get seasick?" Wedge asked her.
"I said no judgment!"
He held up his hands. "Not judging. Just sympathetic. And a little impressed. It must be tough travelling this way."
Yuffie narrowed her eyes at him. "Yeah, well. Shinra doesn't use the river, so it's the best way to get around under their noses."
"Let us know if there's anything we can do to help," Tifa said. "We may not know about boats, but we can learn."
Yuffie shrugged off the offer then, but from time to time she did put them to work holding a line for her or keeping a hand on the rudder. They made slow but steady progress, watching the trees go by on the south bank while the mountains dominated to the north. It was definitely faster than walking, but slower than any means Shinra would use.
When Barret asked her if she knew anything more about Rufus's itinerary, Yuffie remembered she had a small crank radio and shoved it at him in lieu of answering any questions.
It was Tuesday, he learned. Rufus was due in Kalm tomorrow for the first stop in his little tour, and he'd land in Junon for his big to-do on the weekend. The convoy they'd nearly run into would've been an advance team making sure everything was set for his arrival, and they still had the better part of a week to beat him there.
Since they had the time, Barret agreed to coming ashore to make camp for the night. The boat was a little small for all of them to sleep aboard, and Yuffie was the only one qualified to guide it anyway, which made taking shifts dubious. Better for her and all of them to spend the night on dry land and set out fresh again in the morning.
Now he realized what felt different about travelling through this valley: it had been later in the year when he'd carried Marlene north to Midgar. The leaves had been turning, the sweet smell of decay surrounding them. Marlene's first autumn, just seven months old. By that point, he'd taken care of her longer than her own parents had had the chance, but he wasn't her father. He couldn't bring himself even to consider it.
It was in Junon that he'd learned about the other man who'd gotten a gun grafted to his arm--his left arm. But he'd never found Dyne, back then. From time to time, he wondered if Dyne was still alive, where he might be. He must have gotten that arm for vengeance, too, but had he burned himself out?
Barret didn't know whether it was worse never finding out, or having one day to confront his old friend. He wanted Dyne to be alive, but he knew there'd be no forgiveness. His time as Marlene's father would come to an end.
Was that right? Was it fair to Marlene? He missed her already, and he was sure she was missing him, but he couldn't tell how much was an excuse. She was only four, and she wouldn't remember much of these years once she was grown. Maybe he needed her more than she needed him. It was selfish of him to hold onto her when she belonged to someone else.
Barret rolled onto his side. Why was he even thinking like this, as though he'd already lost her? Maybe it was Sector 7 creeping up on him, whispering in his ear that losing people was just what he did. But they were out here trying to get Jessie back. They'd get her back, and he'd go back to Marlene in time. He could put an end to it somewhere.
The change he wanted had to start with him.