Grief

Barret blew a hole into the next room with his machine gun. This room was filled with tanks ... and ...

"Oh, god… were those..." Tifa asked, her nose wrinkling.

"People?" Barret asked, clearly revulsed.

"Yeah. That's the Shinra I know," Cloud said, detached. But the familiar pang hit his head once more. Why did this feel familiar? These tanks, vats full of liquid ... was he an experiment? Suddenly, the phantoms were upon them again, sweeping them out of the room, out of the lab, back to the surface.

"What the hell was that?" Barret said, looking around wildly.

"We need to get him somewhere safe. Everything else can wait until after," Tifa said. Cloud looked back at the lab. Answers were there, maybe. But answers to questions he didn't want to ask.

"Wait," Barret said, stopping. "Biggs ... Jessie. Wedge made it. They could still be alive."

"I saw them both at the pillar... Jessie and Biggs. Saw… how bad they were hurt. I'm sorry, but..." Cloud stopped, seeing Barret's fist clench.

"Don't," he growled.

"They've returned to the Planet, Daddy," Tifa agreed. Barret walked over to the debris, smashing his fist into it, screaming. Then he looked down, growing quiet and emotional.

"They… they were supposed to return to us. But if we stop now… they'll never let us live it down. So… we carry that weight. All of us," he said.