Chapter 16
The road grew narrow through the forest surrounding Gongaga, branches snapping against the sides of the truck so that Barret was sure at any moment they'd have to abandon it, but they drove on well past nightfall. It was at last a downed tree that brought them up short. In the glare of the headlights, he could make out fresh chocobo tracks on either side, suggesting the locals were well aware and just hadn't bothered to clear the road. Maybe they wanted it this way.
It was less than a mile to the village, but monsters set on them twice along the way: first a pair of sharp-clawed lizards, and then the biggest damn bug Barret had ever seen. Apart from Red, they were clumsy fighting in the dark, and they pulled through scraped and bleeding. Aeris and Yuffie tended to them, but that bug inflicted some kind of temporary paralysis, and they reached the village with Jessie's arm still slung across Tifa's shoulders, her feet shuffling sluggishly through the mud.
They must have woken the innkeeper, but he welcomed them without fuss. It was one of those tiny village inns with only a single shared room, but they were the only travellers, and it was the first they'd seen of beds for a while, so no one was complaining. Barret disconnected his gun-arm and pulled off his boots, and he was asleep the second his head hit the pillow.
He meant to wake early, but his body had other ideas. By the time he opened his eyes, he found Wedge and Jessie had cleared off a table in the middle of the room to clean both their own guns and his arm.
"Oh, uh," said Wedge. "You don't mind, do you? We figured it was better to get it done early, but we didn't wanna wake you."
Barret sat up, conscious of the arm's absent weight. The others had all helped him with maintenance before, but they usually asked first.
"You're good," he assured them, and Wedge relaxed, flashing him a smile before returning to his work.
Barret took in the rest of the room. Yuffie was still conked out, done in by her teenage body and the toll of healing magic, while Elena seemed to be luxuriating in the rarity of a bed. A low murmur of conversation from the next room told him someone was talking to the innkeeper.
"Aeris went to ask about Zack," Jessie explained. "Tifa's gonna go with her if they can find him."
He scratched his head. "Y'all've been busy."
"It was the plan, right?"
Barret nodded. "I'm gonna head out myself, see what I can scope out."
"We'll catch you up when we're done," said Wedge.
He went on into the foyer, catching the last of Aeris's conversation with the innkeeper. Tifa cast him a questioning look, but he was sure if the innkeeper had known where to find Zack, she would've given him more than a glance, so he waved her on. They could catch up on the details later.
As the two women stepped outside, the innkeeper turned to Barret. "Anything I can do for you?" he asked.
"Don't know if they already asked, but you ever hear of a Keystone?"
A fog of recognition crossed the innkeeper's face, but he frowned and shook his head. "Sounds familiar, but I can't place it."
Barret nodded. "Thanks anyways."
If it rang a bell here, then maybe they were on the right track.
He stepped out of the inn into the morning air, warm and humid, and surveyed the village. The buildings were all constructed in a distinctive style of round-walled stone huts, and a few brown-skinned villagers tended to the morning's chores. Children threw feed to clucking chickens, and thin lines of smoke rose from a few chimneys, carrying the scent of breakfast on the way.
What caught his attention was the debris. Here and there amid the houses were twisted bars of metal sticking out of the ground. Several roofs showed obvious signs of patching.
"This way," said Red, who sat beside the door, watching him. Barret didn't ask, but followed him around back of the inn to an overlook.
In the distance was a ring of blackened earth surrounding the ruins of a reactor. It had been invisible to them in the night, but it wasn't distant enough for the village to have been spared from the explosion.
Barret wondered what had caused this one. An accident, like Corel? Some fault in the design? If he asked the villagers when it had been built, and when it had gone to shit, how painfully obvious would it be that Shinra hadn't learned a damn thing?
"There's no Mako scent in the village," said Red, "so I think it happened some time ago. Shinra never bothered to rebuild."
"Just as well," said Barret. "Better that they just leave this place alone."
"I wonder why."
"Huh?"
"They took Corel. But they didn't want Gongaga?"
"...I'd guess 'cause Gongaga wasn't ever any kinda competition," Barret reasoned. "They came down on us as soon as the accident happened, didn't give us any time to reconsider whether maybe we wanted to stick to coal minin' after all."
"Hmm," Red hummed thoughtfully.
Barret looked down at him. "You know, you ain't never told us your name," he said.
"I haven't," Red agreed.
"You wouldn't rather be called by it?"
Red's tail swished. "I haven't heard that name since I was taken from my home," he said. "I don't want to hear it again until I've returned."
Barret nodded. He wasn't quite sure he understood, but then again, maybe he did. It would be like all that time away, every awful moment, had happened to someone else. If he could go home to Corel and hear his name in Myrna's voice, would it take him back to the man he'd been?
But the man he'd been since had also carried Marlene, and found like-minded folk who wanted to strike back at Shinra. Those weren't parts of himself he wanted to throw away, even if he could.
For the first time he wondered if Red was really that old, but he didn't ask.
"...we're near enough now I could make it back on my own," Red said quietly.
It took Barret a second to parse what he meant. "You fixin' to leave us?"
Red didn't answer, his tail lashing.
"It's your decision," said Barret. "I ain't gonna stop ya. Only thing is: you can't just slink off without sayin' goodbye."
Red tilted his head to regard Barret with his good eye. "You're right," he said. "I won't."
Barret left him to his thoughts and went out into the village. He started with the shops, and while the first few people he spoke to didn't know anything about a Keystone, they filled in the gaps about what had happened here: three years ago, the reactor had exploded, raining fiery debris over the village. In the aftermath, the survivors had resolved to refuse any suggestion to rebuild, but none had come. Shinra had sent a team to survey the wreckage, and that was it. They'd left the clean-up to the villagers.
As his eyes fell on the debris still strewn along disused paths to the husks of old houses, Barret's gut twisted. AVALANCHE had to be better than Shinra. They couldn't do this to people.
"We don't have anything here for you," a woman said preemptively as he stepped into what he thought was the weapons shop. Caught off-guard, Barret stared at her until she gestured at her right arm, indicating his prosthetic port. "Might know a guy though," she added.
"Oh, uh. I ain't here for that," he said, scratching his head.
She blinked. "Oh. Well, the weapons shop is actually upstairs. I sell materia and protection charms."
He wondered if it was that obvious that he didn't know how to use materia, but he pushed on anyway. "I was actually lookin' to ask about somethin'. You ever heard of a Keystone?"
"Keystone?" she repeated. "Are you talking about that old temple?"
"Yeah, maybe," Barret said, brightening. "Is there some kinda temple around here?"
She gestured vaguely. "Kind of. There's an island out to the east. Some people say there are ruins if you go deep enough into the jungle."
"The place is cursed!" called a man's voice from the second floor.
"Come on, that's just a rumor!" the shopkeeper called back.
"What're you selling protection charms for then?" he retorted.
"...you know which island?" Barret asked.
The woman shook her head. "I don't, but you should try asking Dominic."
"Dominic?"
Her expression did something complicated and then she said, "He lives on his own out in the jungle, ever since... You know. But he's a weaponsmith. He was always into collecting rare materials to work with, so he knew a lot about the local legends."
"You think he'd know about the Keystone?"
"Sure. I mean, I must have heard about it from him."
Barret asked her directions to the man's house, thanked her for her time, and stepped back out into the village.
Wedge had left the inn, and when he spotted Barret, he came trotting over, gun-arm held in his arms. "You should be all set," he said, holding it out.
Barret turned, extending his prosthetic port. Wedge hesitated, then fitted the gun into place. It secured with a click, Wedge stepped back, and Barret rolled his shoulders, letting the familiar weight settle into place.
"Thanks, man," he said.
"Sure," Wedge answered. "So have you found anything yet?"
"Yeah, I got a lead. Guy we need to ask lives a few miles out, so we gotta take a little field trip."
As he spoke, Wedge's attention drifted past him. Barret turned to follow his gaze and spotted Aeris and Tifa exiting one of the houses farther down. Tifa tried to lay a hand on Aeris's shoulder, but she shook it off, moving away.
"...don't guess that went too well," Barret observed.
"So do you think it's just a coincidence that Zack used to live here?"
"Maybe. Or hell, could be Sephiroth came lookin' for 'im an' found out about this Keystone instead, just like us."
Wedge gave that a moment's consideration before he shrugged. "Well, anyway. Jessie and Elena went to see about breakfast, and then maybe we can follow up."
Barret nodded his agreement, and the two of them walked back to the inn together. Aeris and Tifa would come back when they were ready.
Breakfast arrived in a perfume of spices wafting through the door, and one by one the others returned to partake. Yuffie had wandered off somewhere in the meantime, and hopped in through the back window. Wedge opened the door for Red at the sound of his claws on the other side. And at last, Aeris and Tifa.
"No Zack, I take it?" Jessie was the one to ask.
Tifa shook her head. "His parents still live here, but they haven't heard from him in years. Not even any kind of notice from Shinra to say he went missing in action."
"I wish we'd had something to tell them," said Aeris. "But it didn't feel right bringing up Nibelheim when we don't know either."
"If he was okay..." Wedge ventured, "wouldn't he have found a way to let them know?"
Tifa shrugged helplessly. "If Shinra's keeping it all under wraps, maybe he doesn't want to risk getting them involved?"
Barret let out a breath. "Pain in the ass, not knowin'." He glanced at Aeris and added, "Sorry."
Aeris shook her head. "But, you found something?"
"Some lady thinks this Keystone might have to do with some old temple out east. Pointed me to a guy who might know more. Don't suppose it rings any bells?"
"No, not really," she said. Her eyes were on her breakfast, but she didn't move to take another bite.
"There are Cetra ruins scattered throughout this region," Red put in, "but I haven't heard of a temple."
Elena glanced at Aeris. "Well, let's just go ask this guy before you all start running your mouths making up theories," she said.
"Hey," said Jessie.
"She's got a point," Barret acknowledged. "Ain't much to go on yet."
"Uhh, I'm gonna hang back," Yuffie said. "You don't need everybody just to talk to some guy."
"Still have some beauty sleep to catch up on?" Jessie teased.
"No, I wanna check out the reactor."
"Uh, the one that's all blown to smithereens?"
Yuffie nodded. "Yeah. It was built around the same time as Corel's, right? So maybe it had the same kinda special materia project."
"You think Shinra really would've just left that behind, if there was?" Wedged wondered skeptically.
"They left everything else," Yuffie pointed out.
"I don't know," said Tifa. "It's going to be dangerous, going through wreckage like that. And we've already had a taste of the monsters this place attracts."
"I'll go with," Red offered. "We'll manage."
Barret rubbed his beard, considering. The odds of finding anything useful in that mess seemed pretty slim, but then again, this town was still selling materia despite cutting ties with Shinra. Where exactly had they gotten it from?
He looked to Elena. "You up for goin' along? Might be good to have somebody who knows their way around a reactor."
Elena narrowed her eyes, and he realized that she thought he was trying to get her out of the way. "...and you'll fill me in on what you find out?" she asked.
"We'll catch everybody up," he promised.
She nodded slowly. "Okay."
In the daylight, they had an easier time walking the jungle road. Monsters still threatened, but it was easier to see the damn things, and they proved vulnerable to Wedge's ice magic. According to the shopkeeper, the path to Dominic's house was only another mile back from where they'd left the truck, but too narrow for vehicles, so they left it alone as they passed.
Barret kept his eyes peeled, worried the path might be hard to spot amidst all the growth, but it turned out he shouldn't have worried at all: a huge, garish red buggy sat parked at the entrance, blocking the road entirely.
"This sure as hell ain't a Shinra vehicle," he remarked as they all stared.
"Somebody wanted to pretend they were driving a rocket," Jessie agreed.
As they lapsed into silence trying to figure out who it could belong to, there came the sound of a muffled banging from somewhere inside the vehicle. They exchanged glances, and Tifa clambered over the hood, sliding into the driver's seat through the open window.
"You see anybody in there?" Barret called.
"It... It's coming from the glove compartment," Tifa said, baffled.
"What, did somebody leave their pet locked up?" Jessie wondered.
"Oh, let it out!" said Aeris.
Tifa leaned over, undid the latch, and then started back as a blur of black and red tumbled out. It fell out of view for a second and then reappeared leaping onto the dashboard. Barret gaped. It looked like a stuffed cat wearing a cape and crown, animated like a character out of one of Marlene's picture books.
"Thanks, lass!! I was dyin' in there!"
"The hell?" Barret's hand went to his gun-arm, but what, was he going to shoot up a toy cat?
"Um," said Tifa. "You're welcome?"
Aeris had gone to lean up against the hood for a better look through the windshield. "Oh, cute! Are you a robot?"
"You could say that!" The cat stood for a moment, turning its head as if to take them all in, though its eyes were styled in a permanent squint to go with its smiling mouth. If there was a camera in there, who was it transmitting back to?
"Do you belong to the owner of this buggy?" Jessie asked.
"That's a fine way o' puttin' it! Naw, I'm my own cat! Cait Sith's the name."
"What were you doing locked in the glove compartment then?" said Wedge.
"Well... I do ken the owner, y'see? He lent it out to some ne'er-do-wells, an' I thought I'd best keep an eye on 'em. Alas, I was discovered."
"And they weren't wild about being spied on?" Jessie concluded, and Cait Sith nodded.
"Well, who is the owner then?" Barret pressed.
"Belongs to Dio, of the Gold Saucer!"
They all exchanged glances, and Barret said, "I take it he sent these guys after the Keystone?"
"Ye're sure well-informed!"
"It sounds like we'd better get moving," said Tifa. "If Dio sent a bunch of goons, Dominic could be in trouble."
"Yeah, let's go," Barret agreed. Tifa was already climbing back out of the buggy, and the cat dashed after her.
"I'll come with ye!" it announced.
Barret frowned at it. He didn't have any trouble believing it usually operated within the Gold Saucer. The little cat would fit right in among the amusement park mascots, and an innovation like this was probably real popular with the kids. The weird part was that anyone would think to use it as a spy out in the real world; apart from its size, this thing was the opposite of stealthy.
He wasn't keen on letting it spy on them either, but he still had questions, so he shrugged.
"...guess that ain't a problem." For now. He started down the footpath and the others fell in behind him, the little cat jogging at his heels. "How many guys're we dealin' with?" he asked.
"There were four of 'em!" Cait Sith said helpfully. "An' their leader's got a big gun on his arm, like yours."
Barret stopped in his tracks.
"...like Barret's?" Tifa repeated.
"...which arm?" Barret asked.
"Oh, that's right. His is on the left!"
When he'd told the others about Corel, Barret hadn't mentioned his suspicions that Dyne might still be alive. With no idea if that were true or where the man might be, he hadn't thought it mattered. Was it Dyne waiting for them at the end of this path? Why was he someone Dio would tap to do his dirty work?
"Barret?" Wedge prompted.
"Let's hurry," was all he said, and he pushed forward through the jungle, picking up his pace.
He'd watched the others peering around as they'd passed through the desert, trying to work out where Corel had been without pressing the question. Barret knew exactly what land they'd stolen to build the Gold Saucer, and he suspected they let North Corel linger as a source of cheap labor. It was probably his people doing the shit jobs of scrubbing toilets and making repairs out where a man could easily fall to his death.
The Dyne he knew would have been too proud for that. He'd have done anything he could to make it without taking a gil of Dio's money. But if he had survived, then Barret didn't know what Corel had done to him. Barret wasn't the same man he'd been before either, trusting and idealistic.
Branches scraped against his arms; he wasn't being the least bit careful pushing through the path, but if he stopped to think even for a second, he wasn't sure where that would put him. If it was really Dyne, he couldn't let any of his fears hold him back. Whatever Dyne did to him, whatever Dyne felt he deserved...
"Barret?" The path had widened enough for Wedge to come up and walk beside him. He kept his voice low. "What is it? What's wrong?"
But he just shook his head. He couldn't say it, not until it was real.
The trees thinned and opened up into a small clearing dominated by a solitary cabin. Four men stood outside it, ignoring a fifth who lay on the ground groaning, their attention instead on their leader. His back was to them, but Barret recognized his build. Tall and muscular, dark hair cropped carelessly short, and now, a long-barrelled machine gun attached to his left arm. He was holding something in his right, hidden behind his body.
"Dyne...?" Barret said. His voice came out hoarse, hardly any louder than the susurration of the jungle itself, but he saw Dyne go still anyway. Barret swallowed and tried again. "Dyne, is that you?"
"Now that's a voice I ain't heard in years..." Dyne turned slowly to face him. In his hand was a grey stone sphere. "The hell're you doin' here?"
"I could ask you the same. But hell, does it matter? You're here..."
The three men standing with Dyne had turned to face the path. "Boss, you want us to take care o' him?" one asked, but Dyne gestured for them to stay put. He strode forward, a limp in his step though Barret couldn't see any injuries. Behind him and his men, the man who must have been Dominic started crawling back towards the open door of his cabin.
Barret took a step forward into the clearing. He was conscious only vaguely of his friends behind him, all his focus on Dyne. "I always hoped... you were still alive."
"Why? So you could come beggin' for forgiveness?"
"No! No, I ain't askin' for that. I know I was stupid, an' you got every right to hate me for my part in it."
"You call that a part?" Dyne sneered. "You an' your big talk, you got the whole town on board, when we shoulda..." He trailed off and shook his head. "But ain't none o' that gonna matter for much longer."
"...what do you mean?" Barret asked.
Dyne held up the grey stone in his hand. "You know what this is?"
"...the Keystone, right?"
"The Keystone," Dyne affirmed. "An' this guy here--" He gestured behind him, unaware that Dominic was pulling himself over the threshold into the cabin. "--says it opens some Temple of the Ancients. You know what they built that Temple for, Barret? They made the most powerful destructive magic anybody'd ever known, an' they didn't want anybody gettin' their hands on it."
Something inside of him went cold. "Dyne... Whaddaya want with magic like that?"
"Ain't it obvious?" Dyne asked, gesturing with his gun-arm. "The whole world's gone to shit. Every day's just another kinda hell, an' we're all pushin' ourselves through it, for what? There ain't a thing left worth a damn."
"That ain't true," Barret said firmly. "Dyne... Marlene. Marlene's still alive."
The hard look in Dyne's eyes lost its glint, and his brow furrowed faintly in confusion.
"When I made it back to Corel," Barret went on, "I thought the same as you. I was ready to lie down an' die with the rest of 'em. But then I heard her cryin'. Marlene." He took another step forward, holding out his hand. "She's stayin' with some friends now. We could go an' see 'er, you an' me."
Dyne's expression clouded over. Slowly, he shook his head. "No, Barret, I don't think we could."
"She's your daughter," Barret said. "I ain't gonna fight you on that--"
"That ain't what I'm sayin'," Dyne interrupted. He motioned to one of his men and passed off the Keystone to him. "Marlene don't belong in a world like this," he went on. "In a living hell. I gotta do right by her."
"What're you sayin'...?"
"She belongs with her mom," said Dyne.
"What--"
Dyne raised his gun-arm, leveling it at Barret's chest. He'd lived moments like this before in dreams, nightmares, where people from Corel hunted him down to give him what he deserved. He never fought it. He realized with a jolt of terror that he needed to now, but his feet were rooted to the ground, his mouth dry.
Something slammed into his side as the round left the chamber, and Barret staggered. Wedge cried out as the bullet struck him. Off-balance, Barret tried to catch him. They hit the ground together. Jessie screamed.
Aeris rushed forward, but Tifa caught her and pulled her back into the trees as Dyne fired again. "Jessie!" she shouted. The farthest back on the path, Jessie wasn't immediately in anyone's sights, and she ducked behind another tree.
A bloodstain had already blossomed across Wedge's shoulder. Barret pushed himself up, trying to get a hand under him. He could drag him to the trees, but not fast enough-- Dyne's gun-arm was already swinging back in his direction, and Barret hurriedly raised his own.
Staring his best friend down the barrel, he couldn't bring himself to fire. The pop of Jessie's handgun sounded instead, sending Dyne's lackeys reaching for weapons.
"Shit!" Barret cursed. "Dyne, this ain't about them!"
"Then you shouldn't've brought 'em," Dyne said.
Barret shifted his aim and fired instead at the goon just behind Dyne, hitting him in the leg. Another spun towards the cabin, seeking cover, but Dominic had shut and barred the door.
"I don't wanna fight you!" Barret shouted.
"I don't give a damn what you want, Barret."
"Get ready!" Jessie yelled, and a grenade sailed in amidst Dyne and his men. They shouted in alarm, beginning to scatter, but it was only a smoke bomb. In seconds they were surrounded by thick clouds, unable to see their targets. Tifa broke cover to join Barret, helping him to drag Wedge back into the relative safety of the trees. Wedge groaned, conscious to feel the pain.
"Easy, Wedge. Hang in there."
Aeris joined them, the green light of healing rising around her.
"What are we going to do?" Tifa asked, glancing first at the dissipating smoke and then to Barret.
"How's Wedge?" he asked Aeris.
She shook her head. "I can slow the bleeding, but the bullet didn't go all the way through. We need to get it out first or it won't heal right."
"Shit."
"I'm okay," Wedge hissed through grit teeth, and he struggled with his good arm to push himself up, but Barret shoved him back down.
"You're not okay," he said.
"That crook was a friend o' yours?" an accented voice piped up. Barret had forgotten all about the damn cat, which must have hidden in the underbrush at the start.
"If you can't do nothin' then stay the hell out of it," he snapped.
"Seems like this situation calls for magic!" Cait Sith replied.
"You got magic?"
The cat hopped closer to the treeline to peer out at Dyne and his lackeys. It wiggled its arms comically, a green glow rose around it, and then one of the lackeys suddenly poofed into a frog.
"The hell!?"
The bizarre show of magic distracted Dyne and his uninjured lackey even as their visibility cleared. In the time it bought, Tifa fumbled free Wedge's materia bangle and focused, but the ice spell she cast was too weak to do more than make them jump.
"Give it here!" Jessie called, moving closer through the trees. Tifa tossed the bangle to her, and as they coordinated, Barret took aim into the clearing and hit the last goon, leaving Dyne standing alone.
Jessie cast another ice spell as Tifa again broke cover to charge straight for Dyne. The ice crystallized around his torso, freezing him in place for long enough that Tifa found the catch on his gun-arm and twisted it free. Jessie ran out behind her, handgun trained on Dyne, but as the ice spell shattered, he lunged at Tifa anyway.
She flung the gun-arm aside as he tackled her to the ground, but while Dyne was a big man, he didn't have Tifa's training. They wrestled for a drawn-out minute before Tifa gained the upper hand and pinned him to the ground.
Jessie had turned her attention to the injured goons, but Cait Sith called out, "You'll wanna do somethin' about our froggy friend before that wears off!"
"What?"
"Catch 'im, catch 'im!"
Jessie leapt for the frogged goon, and Aeris sprang to join her, but the man-turned-beast dashed off into the undergrowth before either could get their hands on him.
"Let him go," said Tifa. "He's not the one with the Keystone."
"He really turned one into a frog...?" Wedge croaked out.
Barret looked down at him. "Yeah. Crazy fuckin' day, right? Hang in there, we'll get you taken care of soon."
Jessie shouted in alarm, and his head shot up. She'd approached the injured goons again, but one of them had gone for his weapon. Tifa let up on Dyne to knock off his aim, and Dyne struggled free from beneath her. He stumbled forward, snatched up his detached gun-arm, and spun to bludgeon her with it. Then he threw the arm into Jessie, knocking her backwards. He grabbed the Keystone for himself and bolted for the path.
Tifa staggered to her feet and sprang after him.
"Tifa!" Barret shouted as she ran past. He tensed to follow, he wanted to follow, but Wedge's head rested against his legs. He couldn't leave Wedge.
The goon who'd tried to attack Jessie was recovering himself again, but the door to the cabin swung open. Dominic, now armed with a rifle of his own, raised it smoothly and shot the man dead. The last remaining lackey hurriedly threw up his hands in surrender.
"I got this one," Dominic said to Jessie.
"Th-thanks," she managed.
"Aeris!" Barret called. "Can you--?"
Aeris tore her gaze from the scene and hurried over to him. "I'll stay with him," she promised.
Barret nodded his thanks, gave Wedge's good shoulder a squeeze, and then took off after Tifa and Dyne.