(Untitled)

[gunarmwallace]

Who: Barret, Cloud, and whoever the hell else comes around
Status: Open
When: 7:30 PM
Where: Seventh Heaven
What: After seeing the children, Barret sits over a mug of beer listening to the rain.

Comments

[revenio]

She recognized the two voices she heard upon entering the bar, and could name their owners before her eyes even fell upon them. Aerith didn't quite catch the words, but there was no yelling or anything loud, and there wasn't absolute silence, either. Those were the two expected scenarios, and Aerith was a little surprised to be met with neither.

"Ah, w-wait!" Aerith whispered, louder than she intended to--both to the dragon and Zack. She wasn't sure if calling over to Cloud and Barret like that was the best thing (though she didn't know what else to do aside from stand there, really), and having the dragon try to get in on the situation wasn't going to make the whole thing easier to explain.

But it was too late--and hey, didn't she say she was just going to roll with the punches, so to speak? Shaking her head, Aerith sighed. This was the situation handed to her, and she would make the best of it. So, forcing a friendly smile on her lips, she faced the two other people in the bar. "Barret... Cloud?" It was all she could think to say.

She was happy to see them again, happy to be in a warm, familiar place. Even if their resurrection was a prologue for some sort of horrible tale, she was selfishly glad to be standing there with Zack.

[gunarmwallace]

For a very long time, Barret couldn't bring himself to say anything at all. The grip on his mug handle tightened to a near tremble as he studied the newcomers that trudged into the bar. One was a man whom he didn't directly recognize, but still struck as someone oddly familiar. Then there was a little dragon creature that physically looked imposing despite it's rather short height, though seemed docile, not quite meaning to appear menacing just now. And then there was Aerith...considering how many times Sephiroth unwittingly resurrected himself from the dead, he shouldn't have been surprised to see this old friend standing before him. But it was so long ago and she looked so...unchanged.

When the male of the trio shouted to Cloud, he realized why he seemed familiar. The SOLDIER uniform he wore, though drenched with the storm, caused that recognizability to flicker in his mind. SOLDIER was a dead organization, yet he still wore the clothes they adorned all those years ago. Aerith was even in the same clothes she wore when she was...

Were they both...?

"So...we seriously seeing the same shit, right? Like, you seein' Aerith, and some guy with black spiked hair in old SOLDIER gear, and a midget dragon, right? Cause I seriously ain't tryin' to go senile before my time..." He glanced at Cloud, knowing he had to be somewhere between in shock and in-sane.

[stoic_heroism]

Feeling a strange numbness, Cloud stared blankly at his dead companion. It seemed so strangely bittersweet to see her, wet but alive. He wanted to move to stand up, to make certain that this was real, but his eyes shifted ever so slightly to her side where another person appeared. The voice that followed the face made his heart ache as memories shuffled through his mind, some his own and some stolen shamefully.

“…Zack…” he murmured the name in a sort of bittersweet voice. “SOLDIER, Class 1st… Barret... there stands my fake identity of the past….”

He turned a little in his seat, shocked to the point where everything seemed to move in slow motion. Distantly, his eyes shifted down to see the third companion that Barret was speaking of. Midgit dragon…? Within that moment, he found his eyes locking on the red ones of the creature, and whatever had slowed suddenly sped up.

Pain shot from the back of his skull forward as the same time that his left hand suddenly clenched around the beer bottle there, and it shattered into small pieces in his grip. Wrenching his hand to the side, he arched his back as he found himself unable to tear his gaze away from the creature. His pupils suddenly narrowed to fine slits as he clenched his teeth against the pulsing feeling of completeness in his left hand. Reach forward… give it up… give Give GIVE!

His left hand snapped up and over, slamming into the side of his head as his pupils returned to normal. He hissed and grabbed his wounded left hand, forcing his fingers away to see how much glass was not embedded. He stared at the blood-covered mark on his palm for only a brief moment before his fingers clenched over it again, and he looked back to the creature then to his clenched fist.

[epitaph_weapon]

Its gaze drifted over to the large human as they spoke, but found nothing about them to be any kind of danger. Yet the softer tone of the other standing beside them drew the dragon’s attention over towards the blonde one. Blue eyes met with red, and for the first time since its creation, the WEAPON felt a burning deep within its chest as a festering rage built up within.

Fangs beared with a vicious snarl, the dragon stood up to rest on its hind legs as the wings on its back extended out to their full length. Crimson eyes narrowing, the building shook as the WEAPONs jaws opened up to release a mighty bellow in response to the others reaction. The scent of blood assaulting its senses didn’t help with the matter either, and it only caused the dragon to remain hostile as it fell back down onto all fours and began to back away slowly.

Growling low in its throat, its glinting gaze never once stayed from Cloud’s figure as its wings curled in and around its body in an attempt to make itself look larger. Once almost entirely out of sight, the dragon broke their gaze as it turned tail and quickly dashed back out of the bar with the need to flee. Stretching out the large scaly appendages, the WEAPON took off into the sky without caring for the storm raging outside.

[coeurinquiet]

Barret had been glad to pick up the children from school, and it had been a welcome surprise for both Marlene and Denzel alike. After the enthusiastic reunion, Tifa Lockhart had taken it upon herself to help them both with homework assignments and take a little snack up before bed. It was the motherly instinct she'd worked up living with the two them, and arguably Cloud as the others would often joke, and it made her feel all the more like their little family was, well, a family.

The sound of the door opening wasn't uncommon, and on such a stormy night, Tifa assumed it was Cloud returning home. She'd go down in a moment, greet with a smile and dinner... The usual. It was when a loud roar shook the establishment, causing the children to cry out, startled, along with her that she began to get worried.

With a quick word to Denzel to keep Marlene safe upstairs, Tifa was on her feet and down the stairs in time to see a relatively small dragon taking off and to the sky as the rain pounded down on the streets below.

But that wasn't what made her stop dead in her tracks, brown eyes widening as though she'd just seen a ghost. Maybe she had.

Aerith Gainsborough... The First Class SOLDIER, Zack, from Nibelheim... Standing before them all in the flesh. How was it even.

"Aerith... Zack..." she could only utter, more stunned by their presence than the creature that had taken flight moments ago with a bone-chilling roar.

[still_lookingup]

Zack couldn't help it; he grinned when he heard his name, no matter how quiet and desolate that tone of voice. He took a step forward, he opened his mouth to speak--but nothing came out when he heard the rest of that declaration, when reality hit home again. He'd been so set upon keeping hold of that cheer for as long as he could that he almost didn't notice when they hit absolute bottom.

He would've had to have been blind to miss the connection Cloud made with the dragon, they all would've had to have been. Especially considering Cloud's rather violent, odd reaction. But that blast of a roar ran any train of thought that could have led to right into the ground. And then the creature was storming off, back out into the driving rain, and Zack could only stand and stare in shock.

The whole world was set, still, in that cold, stretching pause... Until another familiar face appeared, one that had Zack in the same sort of frozen disbelief as the poor denizens of the bar that the two resurrected members of the group had so surprised.

"You're the guide--you're Tifa, right?" he asked; he'd never forget that face, not after what he'd watched her go through. Nibelheim, everything, it all finally hit home again, and Zack had to wonder.

But then he saw the blood on Cloud's hand, the shattered bits of glass, and the concern made it that much harder to worry about the big picture, here. With another very barely apprehensive glance to Aerith, Zack took another few steps forward and gestured toward Cloud. "..So what the hell was that about?"

[revenio]

Things happened so quickly that Aerith didn't have time to think. Soggy boots pounding against the floor before she could fully register the action in her mind. What had just happened didn't escape her--the dragon and Cloud had reacted, and in a very bad way. She didn't bother to ponder on the actions of either before she was almost to Cloud and Barret.

"Tifa," Aerith said slowly, again at a loss for words. It made more than enough sense for her to be present: it was her bar, after all. But the additional look of shock, in addition to what had just happened was enough to make Aerith have to pause to collect herself.

Before even leaving the church, Aerith knew this meeting would be difficult. How could it not be? She didn't expect big smiles and hugs. She had expected fear, shock... but not such an extreme reaction from Cloud. Green eyes drifted from face to face until they finally settled on Cloud's hand.

She kept her distance, never going further than Zack. "Already getting into trouble?" She motioned to Cloud's hand, not enjoying the fact that she was seeing blood so soon upon her resurrection but trying to desperately make light of the situation. "We should clean that up, okay?"

Her voice didn't allude to anything. It sounded like nothing had happened. Like she hadn't died before them, hadn't visited them several times after, hadn't just been revived along with Zack and a strange creature. But she didn't dare move closer until she was sure Tifa, Cloud, and Barret were aware that they were real, and not some trick.

Keeping herself away from them hurt more than she would ever admit. The urges to help her friends never died, even though she had. However, she didn't want to frighten them, so she stayed beside Zack, waiting for someone to say something.

[gunarmwallace]

The shattering glass caused Barret to instantly move into motion. Time slowed as he moved into position beside his friend just as the creature before them reacted to the destruction of the bottle, the look in Cloud's eyes, and the swift movement from chair to near battle stance. The tension was thick in the air as the large man's gunarm raised, erect before him as the transition from hand to weapon took a mere seconds to complete.

The only thing that kept him from firing a shot was the dragon's retreat, stepping back then shooting from the bar and out of the building. Tifa's approach he barely heard, only triggered by the ghosts that spoke her name. So much shock, too much talking, and Wallace still wasn't sure if what he was seeing was real. He didn't believe the people were hostile...no, their intentions were too clear--friend, not foe.

Still, he wasn't prepared to let them come too much closer than they already stood lest one of his comrades go into cardiac arrest, "All right hold on a God damn mother fuckin' minute! Don't come closer, just sit down somewhere for now. We all need to get a fuckin' grip." He didn't lower his gun as he looked at the wound of Cloud's sliced hand, "Tifa...come help our boy get cleaned up, eh?" He looked back to the drenched pair, "We'd be jumpin' for joy at your arrival, but you can understand this just ain't exactly...logical, ya feel me?"

[stoic_heroism]

It was difficult to explain the feeling that seemed to settle in his stomach as the dragon rushed out of the bar. He let it go even if some of his nerves were screaming for him to follow. He dimly registered Barret on feet near him before he forced himself to relax.

Instinctively, Cloud's face blanked as he shook his hand a little. He felt some of the broken shard fall to the table before he idly closed his hand over the injury and shrugged a little to Aerith's comment.

He had been out of trouble for a long time, but he supposed his quiet life would get a few bumps along the way. He looked between Zack and Aerith before he rose to his feet. "You're wet... you need a towel and a change of clothing," he murmured as if seeing the dead coming back to life was common. "Zack... you can probably fit into some of my bigger clothes." He turned to Tifa. "Do you have something Aerith can wear?"

He began to move to take responsibility for the pair. "They probably need a place to stay as well," he said as he walked towards the stairs.

[coeurinquiet]

Tifa shook her head, snapping out of it through sheer force of will. The shock was replaced with a strange mixture of confusion and joy; there had been so much that she'd wanted to say, so much she'd thought of to say to Aerith after... everything, and here she was, given another chance for some reason. And Zack... He still remembered her as the tour guide from Nibelheim. So much had changed since then.

And Cloud. Cloud was bleeding.

"I-I'm sorry! Cloud, what happened to your hand? Here, let me get some to stop the bleeding," she nearly echoed Barret's words, hurrying over to the bar to retrieve a clean rag, talking almost a mile a minute as she went. "Of course. We'll just patch you right up, and I'll see to getting Aerith a warm shower and something to wear." As she approached Cloud, reaching out gently to begin tending to the wound, her face tilted up to regard Aerith and Zack. She finally took a moment breathe, a moment to blink and realize that they were really there.

"You're really here. Both of you are really here," Tifa finished lamely, not sure of what could properly be said to sum up the mixture of emotions she was overwhelmed by at the moment.

[still_lookingup]

Zack cast a quick glance in Aerith's direction, noting with a bit of curiosity that she wasn't moving any farther forward than he had. That was understandable, under the circumstances, to not want to rush in--especially when considering the incomprehensible turn of events that had just taken place. But that didn't mean he had to like keeping a distance, pretending nothing was wrong right away, nor the fact that the both of them had taken up the responsibility to stay back so automatically.

Well, at least they all weren't under the same strange illusion, any longer. The stranger that Zack was fairly certain Aerith had referred to as Barret had a pretty clear grasp on the situation, by the sound of it. Again, not that Zack particularly liked it. He could forgive the vulgar manner, but a deeply selfish part of him was still bitter at being told to keep away. "Yeah. We got it."

Frowning with an uncharacteristic solemnity, Zack nodded at Cloud's oddly out-of-place, practical suggestion. And the thought of borrowing the other man's clothes brought a wry twist of irony to his mind. Still, he shook his head and crossed his arms absently. "Hey, don't worry about me. It's just a little rainwater, right? I'll be fine like this. Don't go outta your way.

"..Uh, but if it isn't too much trouble, we kind of are looking for a place to stay," he said, all the while wearing a smile he didn't really feel. "Yeah, we really are."

[revenio]

"I know," Aerith said to Barret, eyes watching his arm carefully. She trusted him. And though she had been expecting this sort of reaction, it still caused something to catch in her throat. She wanted to explain, to tell them something good, to tell them why... but she didn't know any more than they did. It was so frusterating that she wanted to scream, laugh, and cry right then and there... though that probably wouldn't help soothe the tensions in the room.

She watched Cloud without saying anything, deciding to keep quiet and not try to talk to him just yet. If he needed time alone, then so be it. As Tifa tended to him, Aerith gave Zack an openly worried look. Cloud was the one she had worried about the most. She and Zack both were tied to him while the others only had to deal with her resurrection. He had come so far. This couldn't be a step back to how he used to be.

The talk of warmer clothes and a shower was enough for Aerith to muster up a small smile. Maybe once she and Zack possessed normal body temperatures, they could try to piece things together--and talk to the others, really talk to them after the shock had set in a little bit. Zack's effort at a smile was enough for her to keep the worry from creeping back into her features.

"I wish we could explain," she said quietly, still still present, "But.. we're as surprised as you are, believe me."

[gunarmwallace]

Barret was willing to admit this not only pissed him off, thinking of how these two supposedly dead people could be standing before them, but scared him as well. Dead people shouldn't be walking, as much as he wished some from his past would. However, the situation was a little too weird too tense. They weren't a threat, so holding a gun to them just added to the stress.

He lowered his leveled arm, the weapon molding back to that of a metallic hand. The fingers flexed subconsciously as he briefly gazed at Cloud's retreating figure. He was calm on the surface, but surely he would be suffering worst of all--everyone else was sure to understand that as well. For the time being, he ignored how Cloud might have felt, and focused on the two that were directly involved.

There was a casual glance passed to Zack before he nodded at Aerith's words. "I bet. Ain't everyday that one second your floating in the lifestream, and the next your topside amongst the living. Gotta be a mind shock."

Before he knew what he was doing, he slowly came toward the formerly dead flower girl and touched her chin with his fleshed hand, a light grin on his features, "Well...ya sure feel alive, if not a little soggy."

[stoic_heroism]

Cloud nodded his head a little as he gently extracted the towel from Tifa's fingers and wrapped it securely around his palm. He was surprised how much he could keep an air of calm about him when his thoughts were racing a million miles an hour inside his skull, rattling more than he already was. He needed to keep in control of this.

"Tifa, can Aerith stay in your room tonight?" He looked to his friend but avoided actually making eye-contact to keep his troubled gaze aside. "Zack, you can have my room for the night. Barret, if you are staying, you can have the couch downstairs here. We have plenty of blankets." He considered a shower. "Whoever wants a shower first, it's down the hall on your first right."

So, not even Aerith could explain being back. He felt a seed of anger, knowing that some ill had been done that was probably irrepairable. He would talk to Shinra about this.

Slowly, he looked over to Zack, feeling a strange sense of nostagia looking at the man. A greater hero than Sephiroth ever was... "Zack, I'll go get you some clothing and a towel."

With that, he walked out of the room and up the stairs to his bedroom.