Lean On Me (FF7)

17

~Tifa's POV~

I frown and try to push the glowing blue button again.

"No, not that one," Cid sounds exasperated.

"Which one?!" I groan.

"The red one."

"I'm so confused," I shake my head. "Next time, get Cloud to do the electrical stuff for you."

"He nearly fried his brains last time," he rolls his eyes.

"Then get Barret, I don't know."

"Jesse would be real good for this," Barret shakes his head, looking a little zoned out. "If she was alive."

"It's not your fault."

"I was the leader back then, Tifa. The leader always stays behind, goes last. I left Jesse, Biggs, and Wedge. I'm a coward." he shakes his head.

"You are not," I shake my head. Why are we even talking about this? Cid just leans against the wall, looking interested. "It's not your fault Shinra knocked down the Sector 7 plate."

"But I didn't help 'em," he shakes his head. "In fact, the only person that even cared that Jesse was shot and just laying on the stairs barely alive was Cloud. An' he didn't even know her that well."

"It's because you were used to them getting injured," I argue back. "A shot in the leg is not that awful if you've just escaped, you didn't think it was any different."

"Maybe I did and I just didn't care," he shakes his head.

"If you didn't care, you wouldn't have brought them up."

"Who exactly are Jesse, Wedge, and Biggs?" Cid speaks up.

"The original members of Avalanche. Barret's best friends," I shoot him a look, but he won't meet my eyes. "When Shinra took down the Sector 7 plate, it killed almost everyone there, including those three, who were brave enough to stay and fight until the end."

"That wasn't bravery," Barret shakes his head. "It was stupidity."

"Sometimes you have to do something stupid to be brave. And sometimes being stupid makes you a hero," I cross my arms. Barret looks up guiltily. I can tell who he's thinking about. Dyne.

Dyne and Barret grew up together in the small town of North Corel. As adults they both got married and Dyne had a daughter named Marlene. Barret was convinced that helping Shinra build a reactor for the mining town would be a great idea, so he convinced Dyne to help him. At some point, Barret realized Shinra wasn't the best organization in the world and helped the Turks take it back. Shinra destroyed the reactor and Corel in retaliation, believing it was the people of Corel who helped AVALANCHE take the reactor. In the chaos, Barret and Dyne returned to the town and were gunned down by Shinra troops. Dyne falls off a cliff and Barret narrowly grabs his hand. Scarlet shoots their hands and Barret drops Dyne to his apparent doom. Going back to the burning town, both Dyne and Barret's wives were dead, and all he had left was Dyne's young daughter, Marlene. Later on, when we went to the Golden Saucer and were thrown in the prison camp there, Barret discovered that Dyne, alive and well, with the same gun-arm operation on his left hand (Barret's is on his right, where he was shot), was inc charge of the camp. When Barret went to find him, Dyne picked a fight and jumped off the cliff he was standing on when Barret first saw him.

"Dyne killed himself, it's not your fault, Barret."

"I could've grabbed him again or somethin'!"

"With your gun?"

"Tifa, stop being so annoying," he groans.

"I'm being annoying? Barret, look at you! You rely way too much on yourself and your strength, just let people in!"