Nanaki and the Fallen Angel Chapter 11
Barret
By Brady Bryner, Bill Shofstall, & Anthony McKinley
North Corel, Entrance 2:03 PM June 4
Barret breathed deep the air around him. He set his new H.O.L.S. arm in place. He had a mission. Three men and two women stood behind him, all carrying many forms of weaponry, rations, and large packs. Barret waved them into the back of a jeep. Marlene was safe in the care of Tifa. Cid jumped after the truck, with the weapon he had finished when he heard of Yuffie's death. He jumped onto the jeep with his shotgun, the Venus Gospel, and various other arnaments. "You weren't thinking of leaving me here, were you?" Barret looked back at him.
"What abou' your airship?"
"I left it with Shera, maybe that putz can do something right and watch over it for a while." He looked out the back. "So... Who'd you enlist?"
"I'm Malcom Bergin, explosives expert." The man wore a worn out leather coat with a Shinra patch on it. "Ex-Shinra sergeant... Never liked em' anyway." He had jet black hair, greased down onto his head, and a cigarette in his mouth. He looked, otherwise, much like Cid, the cigarette furthering his look. A very young woman turned to him.
"Alicia Morgan, technologics expert!" She was quite perky, to Cid. Cid stared at her. "Oh... I'm seventeen." She smiled.
"I'm Jenna Imes, weapons AND fighting expert, nice to be back to the ol' kill first, ask questions later." He noticed a patch of Shinra on her as well.
"And I am..." A brown-haired man with a moustache looked at him. "I am Albert Bee Sogonavich. I'm just a soldier, excelling in nothing, but good at everything." He removed a rifle weapon. "Oh, cept' sniping. Hehe!" He removed a liqour bottle and took a drink. "I'm from North Corel, mu' self."
"So am I." Malcom sat back against the jeep wall.
"Anyway, we got work ta' do." Barret spun a small barrel on his arm. He turned the wheel and they continued on a trek toward Costa Del Sol, where Anthony's robot was waiting at for the rendevous.
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Costa Del Sol, Shinra Facility 7:09 PM June 4
Rufus walked slowly along the catwalk, looking down at the mako reactor that was built to support this factory and the fifteen sorrounding. Dark Nation sauntered behind him, a short and quiet growl escaping his breath. Rufus peered down into the facility, a factory of robotic war machines. They were robots, bipedel, ground robots. They had an all purpose arm with a hand, laser drill, machine gun and laser cannon. The other arm housed a hand, pick axe, energy pulse laser, and a small scanner to look for signs of mako, or various other objects. The midsection held mainly wiring, but had several functions. It had a small lab with ten test tubes, each for use with the scanner when a new material was found, a stun gun, and gas sensor. The feet were wide, and had small air jets in them, allowing them to jump and fly for short periods. The chest cavity held a small cannon and the main computer of the robot. The shoulders each held one-hundred shot batteries of small grenades. The head was much like a dome with four sensors that would scan an organism, determining all basic statistics, and would identify it as a possible threat or not. The silvery dome was covered with a dark black shade, keeping the sensors from being seen, and protecting the central computer in its metal head. It was covered in a black metal, with a sheet of admant, all except for the head, which, while very important, was very unprotected. It was fueled by a small reactor which constantly recycled a small amount of mako, but should it be destroyed, it would crystalize the reactor into materia. The larger reactors required to fuel the factories did not recycle, but simply used up mako. How he built factories and reactors so fast was anybody's guess.
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3 Mi. Outside Costa Del Sol, Avalanch Jeep 9:06 PM June 4
"Kay'... This thing goes here..." Cid attached parts to a computer, while the rest set up their small temporary base while they ran this mission. Barret and Malcom finished putting the roof over the back of the extension, which was two small rooms, a computer room, and a very small medic room. Jenna, Alicia, and Albert prepared defense systems. The trailer extension worked well, and they tested it. It was adequate for their purpose. A mission like this could take a few hours or days, but it was a difficult one. After completion of this mission, they could set for a full scale offensive against Rufus Shinra. Just as Barret was about shut the door, a chocobo rode toward the vehicle, carrying two, bouncing little white puffs. They rode right in front of the door to the trailer and stopped. Barret looked wide-eyed at the two little moogles bounce off.
"Hey man. You got a place we can stay for the night?"
"Uh... Yeah..." The moogles came in and left Choco tied to a rung on the side of the jeep, with a large supply of greens. Mog and Kupan sat in two chairs and began to discuss with the group what was going on.
"So... You're going to attack a factory... Kupo! This could be a great step toward saving the Planet, Kupan!"
"Hmm... You're right, Mog... We have to... I think." Kupan rolled his eyes in thought.
"Anyway..." Barret showed them all the computer screen. "...Alicia here is gonna explain the plan."
"Okay! Now, this is what we know about the factories, we have a read-out from one, and all of the others, by basic Shinra regulation, will vary ever so slightly so that they can produce whatever they wish. So..." She pointed to a set of lines. "...this is the catwalk leading to the reactor, splitting in a Y-joint, but, to achieve the ability to destroy the entire factory, as well as the reactor, we must plant the bomb six decks lower, in the security facility." She turned to them all. "So, we have a real big problem there..."
"Please don't say..."
"...it gets worse. Much worse. The gaurds are all either SOLDIER or robotic, many scorpion gaurds."
"Damn."
"Worse yet, we need a key card just to get TO the security deck, and on the way there won't be much more fun, with all the gaurds and security drones floating around the catwalks. We're gonna have one heck of a time getting through. Here is the safest route..." She showed them an security elevator directly outside the facility that would take them to the deck above the security floor. Then, they would go into the security deck by decoding the door, and fight or sneak past the robo-gaurds and soldiers until reaching the base reactor core, where an explosion would destroy the factory, and the fifteen sorrounding. They planned a twenty minute countdown to explosion, so they would have ample time to escape the factory.
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Costa Del Sol, Factory 11 1:03 AM June 5
Barret waited patiently for Alicia to get the elevator. A small booth opened, and they cramped in, and sunk down. Barret stepped out onto the floor, a catwalk, and walked toward a door, when three scorpion gaurds sorrounded them. "SHIT!" They opened fire on them, destroying one quickly, but during the explosion, the alarm went off, and two more fell in. Barret blasted another, sending flaming pieces of metal into the wall, the other three taking the advantage of the small groups confusion, one picking Malcom up. It stung at him with an electrical blast.
"GYAAH! You do NOT FUCK WITH ME!" He fired his machine gun into the robot, causing more sparks to fly. Malcom fell down and lit his cigar off the smolder that once was a twelve thousand gil robot. He laughed as he fired randomly at the last two. "WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Isn't this fun!?!" Mog slapped his head.
"NO!" One grabbed him as well, but began to squeeze, and leveled its rifle at him. "Uh oh... Dat' ain't no good!" It was about to fire when its rifle blasted off. Mog saw Barret. "THANKS!" Mog fell down, and did a magical dance he perfected in the Esper World. "HELL RAGE!" An amazing assualt spell. The robot's legs melted from the heat Mog loosed upon him. It fell into the molten steel, and melted further, until it seeped through the catwalk, amazingly not melting that as well.
Everyone else turned to the last gaurd. "This could be fun..." Jenna smiled, and planted a sticky mine to the side of the creature's metallic hull. "Umm... GET DOWN!" Everyone hit the deck as the creature blasted into shrapenal.
They continued to the door, Alicia decoding it. Barret led the way, Mog and Kupan at the rear. Barret looked around, in the security room, at nothing. "WHAT THE HELL!?! Where is everyone?" Alicia showed him the radar.
"Nothing... What IS going on?"
"I don't care... Lets just blow this thing and get out of here." Barret walked toward the core.
"Umm... Barret?"
"What!?!"
"Well... Just about three seconds ago, several hundred dots appeared on the radar."
"SHIT!?! Everyone take cover!" Everyone fell back behind equipment.
"Barret! This isn't going to help!"
"Why!?!"
"They're all around..." Hundreds of clicks were heard in near unison. "...us." Bullets rained down and all around them. The soldiers ran in from doors all around, lead by Scarlet. Scarlet walked slowly to the now standing Barret.
"I know you...from many, many places, don't I?" Barret held up his gun arm. "Oh, yes, I remember. What ever happened to your friend?" Barret was silent. "Pity." She waved her hand. "Kill them." Cid jumped up and fired at Scarlet, hitting her in the ribs, the bullet lodging itself there. "FUCK!" Everyone attacked, not caring how futile it was. Just then, the robot, now known as Erik, smashed through the ceiling, and opened fire with everything it had, blowing apart soldiers and robots. Malcom looked in his pack.
"SHIT! I forgot the bomb... Damn it..." The robot heard him. Meanwhile, Barret had gotten angered severly with Scarlet. He leapt up from hiding and stepped hopelessly into a field of bullets, soon entering his body, leaving him spitting his own blood out, but not stopping, firing his laser like a madman.
"BARRET!" Cid ran to Barret, covering the soldiers with fire. Barret fell back, thinking his final thoughts.
"I'm sorry Marlene... Sorry I couldn't keep my promise, Dyne, but you and I both know this was it. This is my destiny, ain't nothing going to change it. Going home to Myrna... Going home..." He looked at Cid. "Ci... Cid..." Cid dragged him to a safe spot. Barret grabbed the necklace Dyne had given him. "Give this to Marlene... Tell er' I'm sorry...please..."
"NO! You son of a bitch! Don't die!" Barret forced the necklace into his hands, and shut his eyes, and died. "FUCKERS!" Cid got up and fired blindly, screaming as the flames from the end of his gun lit his face bright. "DIE!" Scarlet aimed her pistol at him. Cid focused on her, and muttered, "Die you bitch..." One shot. One shot pierced her skull, going directly through her head, hitting the soldier behind her, too. Blood and brains shot out, drenching the ground behind her. "I'll see you in hell..." Cid motioned to leave, and they ran off, Cid accepting the hopelessness of Barret, now dead. Erik didn't go. He stayed, and turned on his own bomb. Himself. Cid and the others were well on there way away. The soldiers battered and shot the robot.
The last thought Erik had before detonation was, "I think, therefore I am." The building exploded, taking everyone of the soldiers with it, and annihilating the factories around it. Cid drove back to Corel, with the others in the back, in total silence. Barret was Cid's best friend. Cid loved Marlene like a niece, and even a daughter. He was Barret's best friend, too. He had a dream that morning in Corel.
~~~
"Hey, Cid." Cid looked at Barret.
"B... Barret?"
"I know... I'm in the lifestream, Cid. I am at peace. I'm with Dyne, and Myrna. Thanks. Marlene... Don't you ever make her cry. Give her this, too..." Barret dropped a ring in Cid's hand, a solid gold ring. "See ya' round, ya' ol' jack ass..." Barret smiled. Cid did, too. He found a sudden calm. Barret was at peace. All his life thats what Barret wanted. And he had it. Cid saw that he shouldn't be sad that Barret was gone, but still couldn't help but miss a friend.
~~~
Cid woke up in a cold sweat. He looked into his hand, a gold ring set there. "I won't make her cry... Never." He squeezed his hand shut around the ring. Cid began to cry silently. "I gotta make amends..." He thought about Shera. He knew he hadn't done what he wanted to do in life. Barret wanted to die fighting for a lost cause. Lost to everyone but him, and now not lost to Cid. He'd make Rufus pay, Arkon, Sephiroth. "Everyone of you fuckers realize now, I'm comin' for ya', and Hell's coming with me..."
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Niblehiem Area, Tifa's Bar 8:03 PM June 6
Tifa had just got the letter. She sat crying uncontrollably, when Kianki, Anthony, and Nanaki entered the bar. Nanaki walked up to her, and set his paws into her lap to hoist his upper body up, to look at her face. "Whats wrong?" He showed traces of a frown.
"Barret... He... He..."
"I understand..." Nanaki remained silent, trying to comfort Tifa best he could, the news striking him hard as well, but he controlled himself as well as he could. Anthony and Kianki sat, quiet in the corner. They said nothing, just looked silently at the ground. The silence hung in the air for almost two hours before anyone spoke.
"He was...fighting the Shinra when he..."
"He wanted to die like that. Honorable and valiant." Tifa nodded, and dried her tears.
"It's wierd... We split up after Meteor and went our own ways, pursuing and found out that death was what would bring us back together... It's almost pathetic..." She managed a weak smile. "How are we doing?"
"Same as usual..."
"That bad?" She even managed a weak laugh. "We're bad at this... Do you think that we'll, you know, die, like that?"
"One would be so lucky to die, to be honored so well, and never forgotten..."
"Thats easy for you to say..."
"What?"
"Your father is a statue. No one will forget."
"We won't forget Barret... Had it not been for him, we'd all be either dead or dying."
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Shinra Building, Reeve's Office 12:44 AM June 7
"Hey, Reeve..." Cait walked in, slowly. "I heard the news..."
"Yeah... It's... It's so... I can't find the words for it... For the next three weeks, Angus is controlling the company directly."
"Angus?"
"Don't worry, I trust him."
"What are you doing?"
"We're going to kill Rufus."
"Are you insane!?!"
"No. I'm not."
"This is a God given mission, isn't it?"
"Very good, Cait. You're learning the difference. Come on Cait..." Reeve got up. "Lets go home."
"Yeah..." Cait scampered up and sat on Reeve's shoulder.
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