LYDIA DEETZ AND FINAL FANTASY 7
Capítulo 11: The cry of the giant
The desert prison was a horrible place, there were neither guards nor walls, since a deadly desert was in charge of eliminating whoever was crazy enough to try to cross it, and if hunger or dehydration did not do the work, the monsters that swarmed the place would account for the foolish.
“What a horrible place," said Aerith apprehensive.
“This is hell," whispered Jesse as she approached Biggs and held his arm.
“Don't walk away," Biggs warned Jesse as he watched the prisoners watching behind the piles of scrap metal scattered all over the place.
Some of the prisoners were approaching where the group was and they knew that the only thing stopping them was that they were in front of a large and compact group.
“All of you, surround Lydia and protect her," Wedge ordered calmly and without taking his eyes off the prisoners.
Many of the prisoners pointed at the women and began to mumble to each other.
“We'd better move on," Yuffie told them, and when she turned around she came face to face with a madman who smiled at her in a stupid way.
“kyaaaa!” shouted the girl and took refuge behind Cait.
“Calm down Yuffie, come on, we'd better get moving.” the robot calmed her down.
“Wait a minute," said Wedge and pulled his pants up to check his knee.
“Damn, I have about three teeth embedded in my knee," Wedge complained and pulled these out later.
The madman lunged at the teeth and tried to embed them in his toothless mouth.
Nanaki, frightened, began to howl pitifully.
“Let no one part," said Cloud, and the group began to move forward in a compact grouping.
The group arrived in what appeared to be a somewhat safer area, at least the ragged-looking prisoners and several of the madmen stopped following them.
“God, that was horrible," cried Tifa.
“Don't worry, Lydia, we're safe now," Percy assured her, looking around nervously.
“Thank you Percy, thank you guys for protecting me," Lydia thanked them, who was no longer shaking.
As they continued walking, they approached a rolling house that looked so bad that the offensive graffiti on its surface was the only thing that gave it a touch of color and life.
“What will those men do at the entrance? They look like guards," said Aerith nervously as she watched as several prisoners began to pile up and make obscene gestures at her.
“The "boss" of the prison is surely there," Wedge pointed out as he approached his cousin to protect her, as did Percy.
“Let's go in and talk to the boss, maybe he'll tell us something about Barrett," Biggs suggested, protecting Jesse with his left arm as he turned his face as he saw several men lewdly sticking their tongues out.
“Let's get the fuck in.” Yuffie who was glued to Cloud the same as Tifa.
The group approached the mobile home, but the "guards" cut them off. Only one of us could meet the boss.
“Let me in," said Cait, "I'm a robot after all.”
“No," said Wedge, "that way we wouldn't be respected. You protect Lydia and Yuffie.”
“We'll protect them too," said the other girls, taking courage.
Wedge went in alone to meet the chief and he told him clues about Barrett, he also told him that he was just the "interim chief", that the real chief was in another section of the prison, that he was such a dangerous man that no one went near him.
When Wedge left, he told everyone about his conversation with the man.
“Let's go and see Barrett,” - said nervous Tifa as several men began to approach the group and point at the girls, especially her.
The group had to cross the dangerous area of the prison and Wedge had to fire several shots to keep the prisoners away.
“Excuse me guys," Yuffie lamented when they got to where Barrett was supposed to be, "I'm supposed to be a ninja, but you had to protect me like Lydia.”
“Don't worry, Yuffie," Jesse consoled her, "you and Lydia are still young and it was our duty to protect you.”
“We'd better go in the house," said Aerith nervously, looking at the front of the wrecked and abandoned dwelling.
Nanaki offered himself, and Percy nodded, turning back into a panther.
The abandoned house had a sorry appearance inside, with all the broken furniture scattered around, and even a good part of the roof was missing.
At the back of the room, leaning against the wall and with his back to the group, was Barrett.
“Barret?” Wedge said, and the giant turned to see him.
“Wedge, what the hell are you doing here!”
“I should be the one asking that question," answered Wedge.
“Stupid, get out of here!”
“Barrett, we've all come for you," said Tifa.
“Barret, please” Jesse begged him.
The giant shouted as he discharged his weapon against the group, or rather behind the group, into a closet.
The closet was opened and a man came out of it with a knife that fell inert on the floor.
“Barret...” Cloud said.
“This place is dangerous, you shouldn't have come here," the giant scolded them.
“Is that your friend? He looks dangerous," Cait told Lydia, who stepped forward to talk to the man.
“Barret, what is this place?” Lydia asked him.
“This place... It was my friend Dyne's house, where he, his wife and little daughter Marlene lived.”
“You mean this place, the desert prison, was Corel?” Lydia muttered as she covered her mouth with her hands because of the impression.
“Yes, after Shinra razed the village, she forced all the survivors to move to that refugee camp. Then this Dio came and expropriated the land and turned it into his private prison. The people wanted to claim him but he ordered to kill everyone who claimed him. We wanted to protest but in the end nobody in the world cared!”
"I came down here to see once again my hometown, or at least how little of it I have left. I stole one of those robots that grab people and throw them away in this place, it wasn't hard, those things are easy to program.”
“Barrett, you weren't the one who shot in the Gold Saucer arena, were you?” Biggs asked him.
“What? I did no such thing!”
“Someone shot at Gold Saucer, they say he was a huge man with a gun arm," Cloud told him.
“Maybe it's that "Boss" that no one comes near," Wedge reasoned.
“Mr. Barrett," said Cait. “Where's the robot you came in on?”
“I'm sorry, but I left it abandoned and when I came back to see it, the locals had burned it.”
“That means we're stuck here," said Aerith scared and Tifa went to hug her.
“As far as I can see," Wedge said, "we have no choice but to go to that famous boss.”
“Why do you say that, Wedge?” Lydia questioned him.
“The other boss I spoke to at the RV told me that the real boss was a man with a one-armed arm. If he's the same guy who was at Gold Saucer, it means he has the means to get out of this hellhole.”
“Then let's go," said Jesse, who was anxious to get out of the place.
The group left for the direction Wedge was told to go to to find the boss with the gun arm. Barrett was introduced to Cait Sith, and was very surprised when Percy, again in the form of a cat boy, told him how Wedge saved his friends from the robots and then defeated Dio, all to protect Tifa.
“It seems incredible that the chubby guy Wedge has done something like that, but of course, now that he is no longer chubby, and now that I think about it, when I met him he was thin, I wonder how he got so fat since he joined Avalanche, and most importantly, how did he get thinner?” Barrett said when he saw Wedge's naked, athletic torso, and Percy smothered a laugh.
.
.
The group arrived at a part where there were several remains of machinery scattered all over the place, apparently the site was deserted.
When the group approached the ruins of a building on the edge of an abyss, they were met by a series of warning shots to stop them from leaving.
A huge man holding a bottle of whiskey approached the group and had a gun arm.
“Dyne, it's you! I thought you were dead!” Barrett shouted.
“That voice... It's been a long time since I've heard that voice...”
“Dyne, it's me Barrett...”
“Barret, yes, I remember you... My wife asked me not to kill you... not to kill you for bringing Shinra's people... for burning the village... for killing Marlene...”
“Dyne, what are you talking about? You're hallucinating... plus Marlene's alive.”
“Marlene... is alive... she's alive...”
“Yes, Dyne, let's go to Midgar together and see Marlene.”
“I see, then I'll have to kill you, Barrett.”
“What are you talking about, Dyne!”
“Don't you see, Marlene, I must take her to her mother, I must take her to her.”
“Dyne, what do you say? You're insane, react!”
“You and me, Barrett, let's fight for Marlene.”
“All right, Dyne, let's get started.”
“Barret, what the hell!” shouted Wedge.
“Wedge, guys, let's keep out of this, this is between me and Dyne," said Barrett and headed out to face Dyne.
“Wedge," Lydia complained. “What are you doing? You must stop this madness, it is obvious that the man is not in his right mind at the moment.”
“But Barrett asked us to leave this in his hands," said Wedge.
“He's our friend! We must help him!” Lydia and the other girls (except Yuffie) and Percy nodded.
“We can't go in there, it's a man's business," said Biggs.
“How ridiculous! How can you act so "macho" at this very moment?” Lydia asked indignantly.
“Lydia, please leave them alone," said Yuffie trying to calm her down.
“Men!” Lydia muttered angrily and shook her head.
Dyne, who had drunk a lot and was hallucinating, was not a great challenge for Barrett and was defeated.
“That's enough, Dyne, come back to me.”
“Barret?” said Dyne, who had apparently come to his senses.
“Yes, it's me, my friend, please come back to Midgar with me, let's see Marlene together.”
“Marlene... no, I can't, there's so much blood on my hands,” cried Dyne as he stood up and approached the edge of the abyss. Lydia had a bad feeling about this.
“Take it, Barrett, it was my wife's necklace, give it to Marlene. I can't do it anymore.”
“What do you say, Dyne! Don't do anything stupid, get off the cliff!”
“Listen, Barrett, even if I did come back, Marlene sees you as her father, I can't do anything anymore, I have nothing to do in this world, goodbye Barrett...”
“Dyne!”
“Percy, hurry up!” Lydia shouted, and Percy turned into a cat and flew into the abyss.
After a tense moment, Percy came out of the abyss, holding Dyne, who was apparently unconscious.
.
.
“...I'm not dead?” Dyne muttered as she regained consciousness some time later.
“Not my brother, you're not dead," Barrett said with tears in his eyes.
“Why, why am I not dead! You should have let me die!” The man suddenly shouted at him.
The snap of a slap cut the scene. Lydia was standing in front of the man, apparently slapping him.
“Are you in such a hurry to die? Or you just want to run away and bury your head in the sand," said Lydia and the whole group got nervous.
“I... I saw all my people die.”
“All those present saw their loved ones die, but they do not want to die because of this. I saw a lot of people die once, on a remote island, I even saw Percy die," said Lydia and everyone looked at the cat boy strangely.
“I couldn't do anything... nothing to save them.”
“I couldn't do anything to save those people either. If I had been stronger, if I had summoned just in time, I would surely have saved them. Parents who would have recovered their children, children who would not have been orphaned, people who would not have lost their boyfriends and lovers. But I was slow and all those lives were lost, but I don't want to die because of that," said Lydia.
“But I killed so many people.... I wish I was dead.”
“I also once said that I'd rather be dead, but I had Percy, but if it hadn't been for him I would have killed myself by collapsing on the river in my town” Lydia cut him off and everyone looked at her friend in surprise.
“I would have died too if it wasn't for Lydia, so please, Mr. Dyne, don't say you'd rather die, you have Marlene," Percy intervened.
“But Marlene, all these years, I'm sure she wouldn't recognize me as her father anymore.”
“Sure Marlene, as kind as she is, will be very happy to have two parents who will always care about her and give her all the love in the world.”
“But, and the people I killed.”
“Dyne, you killed many people, so help us save the planet to redeem you from Marlene and your wife," suggested Lydia.
“Will I thus be able to redeem my sins?”
“No, you will only redeem yourself before your family for protecting the planet Marlene lives on. If you want to redeem yourself and most importantly, forgive yourself, you must use your arm-arm and stop the villains who want to destroy everyone in the world. It is easy to kill by excusing yourself in justice, but you must never kill again, you will bring all evildoers to justice, without killing again, only then will you obtain forgiveness of your heart.”
“Do you think I'll make it?”
“Your wife, Marlene and I know that," said Lydia as she looked away from the man and saw the spirit of Dyne's wife smiling at her husband.
"Your wife, I can see her, she just wants you to be happy and take care of Marlene along with Barrett," she revealed, and Dyne and the others looked at Lydia in surprise.
"She gave me a message to you: Don't let yourself be changed by resentment," Lydia told him, and then she gave Dyne a chaste kiss on the lips.
Dyne started to cry as she hugged Lydia's feet. The other members of the group cried including the men and saw Lydia who was the smallest of the group in a different way, now she seemed so tall and invincible, but at the same time so wise and gentle, like a goddess.
CONTINUARÁ...
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