"Corel...Corel..." Yuffie bit her lip, squinted her eyes. "Hey! What rhymes with Corel?" Tifa spared a glance at the bouncy ninja, and shrugged lightly, frowning in thought. "Bell?" "Shell?" Aeris offered. Yuffie scowled, kicked at the dust on the road, bit her lip once more before she spoke. "No way...that's not gonna work. See, I'm thinking, with my songs..." Tifa looked heavenward. "Again?" she mumbled. Yuffie ignored her, fell into conversation once more. "See, I'm trying to...think of a new creative vision." She waved her hands dramatically, spun like a ballerina. "Like, I'm trying to take them in a new direction!" Aeris smiled serenely, stared at Tifa, a comfortable, knowing gaze. "I bet Tifa knows how to sing." Yuffie guffawed loudly, slapping her hands against her knees and falling to the ground in a melodramatic demonstration of amusement. "Gawd, no way, Aeris! Now, I have to say...Tifa's a pretty decent fighter...I mean, not better than me, but you know," she smirked, "not many people are. But singing? Nope, no way, I bet she can't. 'Sides, even if she could, she wouldn't." The spry young woman hopped back up to her feet in an instant. "She doesn't like sharing with us, you know." There was something hidden in her tone. Tifa opened her mouth to say something, but Aeris shook her head, gave Yuffie an exasperated grin. "I'm sure Tifa can sing." She turned to the brunette, waiting for her to speak. "Can you?" "My mother was a better singer..." Tifa said softly. "Besides...I haven't done it in a long time...since she um..." she trailed off awkwardly. "I just don't really sing anymore," she finished quickly. Yuffie frowned; Aeris lowered her head and kicked at the ground. "Sorry," the flower girl murmured. "Your mother was a very wonderful woman, Tifa." "Yeah, I..." the martial artist paused, turned toward Aeris and blinked, a befuddled expression on her face. "Wait...how do you..." Aeris lifted her hand, shook her head. Nothing more needed to be said. Tifa walked ahead of the other two, her eyes strange and distant. Yuffie cringed. She had that...feeling again. That odd tingling in the back of her head, a whisper of something she couldn't place. It made her nervous. She didn't like being nervous. Being a thief was all about keeping your hands steady, being alert. Being a ninja was very much the same. Suddenly, Yuffie felt as if she was somehow being excluded from something. She decided she didn't like that either. No one kept Yuffie Kisaragi out of anything. She was going to find out what this was all about. The Gold Saucer trip would be a perfect time to figure out this little mystery. She giggled deviously, rubbed her hands together. Time to do some detective work. ~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~ Corel was a little scrap of nowhere in the world, a dusty town full of dilapidated buildings, broken glass and twisted steel. The people, driven by despair and anger, lived off selling what they could, trying in vain to get enough money from passerbys on the way to the Gold Saucer. Those who could left the place as soon as they were able, their minds twisted by the stories they had heard, their hearts hardened against the one man whom they believed was at fault. Barret Wallace. Pulling her thoughts away from her own problems, Tifa noticed Barret's stiff way of walking, his hunched shoulders as he reached the town. Barret had told her some things, but not all, and now, with morbid curiousity, she and the others walked into the once-prestigious coal town, another hapless victim of Shinra and Mako. ~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~ "Stay here," Barret said to Cloud and the others when they reached the town. He approached a tired, pale man, said something inaudible. Tifa watched carefully, clenched her fists at her sides. Something was about to happen. The man stepped foward, and pulled his fist back, punching Barret in the stomach. Barret slumped slightly, but he did not retaliate, only stared at the man sadly. Tifa gasped, moved to intervene, but Aeris gripped her arm before she could. She struggled; Aeris frowned, pulled her closer. "Don't," she whispered. "Let Barret handle it." Tifa shook a little, waited for Aeris to loosen her grip before she relaxed. "Well, lookey here! Never thought I'd see your face again!" the man said, spitting at the ground near Barret's feet. "They kick you out of another town or somethin'?" Barret didn't answer; the man made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. "You destroy everything you touch," he growled, stepping back. Other men gathered around the first, all staring at Barret with the same cold, angry eyes. Tifa shuddered. It made her uneasy; it made her worry. Barret never took such abuse from anyone. If someone so much as stared at him the wrong way, he would beat them to a pulp. Why wasn't he fighting back? "You got a lot of balls comin' back here! Look at this place! It's all your fault North Corel turned into a garbage heap!" another man spat angrily. Barret sighed, looked at his feet. "...I'm sorry..." he all but whispered. Tifa moved again; Aeris held fast to her. "Look what they're doing to him!" Tifa whispered in a low hiss. "Let me go..." "No," Aeris whispered back. "Do you really think he wants you involved, or any of us? Stay still and wait." Tifa mumbled something unintelligable, brooded silently, but she did as Aeris asked. The first man let out a string of curses, turned away from Barret. "You ain't even worth the effort. Don't waste your time talkin' to the Techno-freak!" The others dispersed, Barret watched them go, slumped his massive shoulders, sighed again. He returned to the group, eyes still downcast. "You heard 'em..." he muttered gruffly. "It's my fault this town was...destroyed..." Tifa stared at him sadly, but before she could speak, he ran off. Cloud shook his head, looked around at the small, dingy town before turning to the others. "We better follow him. Looks like he headed to the Ropeway. Come on." ~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~ The others somberly made their way to the Ropeway station; Tifa leaned against the wall, waited for someone to say something. She wasn't sure she trusted her voice. Aeris spoke first, moved toward Barret. "Barret, what happened?" she murmured quietly. Barret stared at her sadly, shook his head. "Sorry." Cloud stepped up, stared carefully at Barret. "What happened?" "My hometown used to be around here." Yuffie and Red XIII shared confused looks; Red shrugged lightly, cleared his throat. "What do you mean, 'used to'?" he asked Barret. Barret turned to the creature, sighed again. "It ain't here no more. Heard it got buried...in just four years." "But how could those people say such terrible things?" Aeris asked. Barret didn't seem to hear her. "An' it's my fault. ALL my fault." His voice almost seemed to tremble; Tifa looked away. It was strange to see him like this, to see him so sad, so tired. "Corel was always a coal mining town," he began. "It's so dusty, but calm and so poor...a real small town, this one. That's the first time I ever heard the word "Mako reactor" mentioned since that time..." As Barret explained what had happened to Corel, how his wife had died, his family, how Shinra had destroyed everything he ever loved, Tifa felt her mind wander to a place, years ago. She saw herself, younger, her body shaking with broken sobs. Screaming for revenge, begging for her father to wake up. All because of Shinra. They ruined so many lives... "...but more than Shinra, I couldn't forgive myself," she heard Barret saying. "Never should have gone along with the building of the reactor." Tifa blinked, wiped away a tear. "Don't blame yourself," she whispered. "We were all fooled by the promises Shinra made back then." Yuffie looked down, sniffled slightly. Red XIII shook out his mane, looked at the ground. Aeris shifted, moved toward Tifa, laced their fingers together. Tifa looked over at her, smiled. ~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~ Aeris was more excited than anyone else to see the Gold Saucer. "I've never been," she whispered breathlessly to Tifa when she tried to get her to calm down. "It's so beautiful." "I've never been either." Tifa smiled. "It's great...so many lights. I've never seen so many lights before...but still," she shook her head, "remember, we're not really here to goof off, okay?" Aeris pouted, tugged Tifa into the entrance of the massive theme park. "But just because we aren't here to goof off doesn't mean that we shouldn't." She winked. "Let's go!" By the time they walked in, the others were there already. Yuffie was a ball of energy, buzzing this way and that. "Gawd, did you see the outside! All of those lights and the Gondola and the roller coasters and the big chocobo and stuff!" Aeris grinned, glad to find someone on her wavelength. "Let's have fun!" She stared over at Barret, who was facing the wall. Tifa winced, tried to grab Aeris before she could say anything, but it was too late. "I know this isn't the right time to do this...hey Barret, cheer up!" Barret stepped away, glared at her. "I ain't in no cheery mood. So jes' leave me alone." Aeris shrugged, seeming unconcerned. "Really? That's too bad." She ran over to Cloud, hopped up and down. "Let's go!" Tifa walked over to Aeris, grabbed her shoulder, pulled her away. "Wasn't that a little harsh, Aeris?!" she whispered. "Just act normal when this happens," Aeris whispered back. "You think so...?" Tifa asked uncertainly. "Of course!" Aeris ran over to Barret, tugging Tifa behind her. "We're gonna go play..." Tifa looked apologetic, pleaded with Barret with her eyes, but he didn't seem to notice. He growled low, waved his arms in the air angrily. "So PLAY!...messin' round #@^%! Don't forget we're after Sephiroth!" He hopped into one of portals, disappeared. Aeris sighed. "...I think he's mad." Tifa shook her head. Still the same Aeris. ~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~ "The Speed Square?" Aeris groaned. She leafed through a tiny brouchure in her hand, rattled off options to Tifa. "Why couldn't we go to the Event Square and see a play? Or the Wonder Square? They have lots of games there. Or the Chocobo Square, or...we could have gone to the Round Square and rode the Gondola, and watched the lights and saw everything from way up high..." she sighed. "That would have been nice." Tifa scoffed. "The Speed Square is fun." "No it's not. You just ride around in a stupid rollercoaster and shoot things." "Then leave." Tifa challenged. "Fine." Tifa blinked. "You're leaving?" "Yep." "Seriously?" "Yes." "But...I'm going to be here by myself." "So?" She turned on her heel. "I'm going." Tifa sighed. Either stay alone and play the shooting game, or go and do something terribly uninteresting with Aeris. But it would be with Aeris. She stared longingly at the rollercoaster. "So..." she scratched her head, shuffled from side to side. "I'll see you around then," she grinned. Aeris blanched, shook her head vehemently, stomped her foot. "That's not fair! You're not supposed to do reverse...reverse psychology." "Well, I just did." Tifa hopped into one of the seats. "You coming?" Aeris bedrudgingly took a seat next to Tifa, rolled her eyes. "Next time we come here...we're doing something I want to do." Tifa smiled, stared at Aeris. The flower girl's face was flushed from annoyance, strands of hair fell out of place. Tifa brushed them back into place with her hand. "Okay." "You promise?" Aeris seemed uncertain. "I promise." She smiled, then blinked when she heard the familiar ring of her PHS. "Hello?" "Tifa." Cloud sounded...worried? "Something went wrong." "Wrong?" "It's Barret." end of chapter seven Not a lot of Tifa and Aeris interaction this chapter, compared with the last one. Sorry. It's just that this is Barret's part of the story in the game, and if I want to stay true to it, I can't just brush past it. Okay, so we didn't get to the prison in this chapter, and there was no mention of Cait Sith, since I don't care enough about him to make Aeris and Tifa meet him first, as I did with Yuffie. I don't have anything against him...he's just fairly unremarkable to me. He is with Cloud though, just in case you're wondering, and will make his appearance soon(complete with hilarious fortunes). Okay, next chapter, desert prison, Dyne, chocobos, and(hopefully) Cosmo Canyon. See you around.
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