Time has absolutely no meaning for Cloud as he marches straight, nearly due east. He doesn't even care anymore. All that time of carrying this damn burden on his back are going to come to an end before the night is done. He had a plan, and that will be the end of it. At least he hopes it will be. The way he figured, if he gets rid of the physical link to his blood filled past, maybe the rest will follow. His plan was to one way or the other destroy the giant meat-cleaver of a sword, and leave the pieces far behind. Out of sight, he thought, out of mind.
About five minutes behind, Barret doesn't have to worry about not being seen by Cloud, but he does have to struggle to keep up. Cloud's extreme pace translates how much he wants to accomplish his goal, if only Barret could tell what it is. Tifa gave him an Enemy Away materia to minimize amount of encounters they would have, something Barret does not care for. First, because Barret was never much of a materia user, he still gets confused from time to time; he also may not be close enough for it to affect Cloud. But mainly because of the type she gave him, while he knows Tifa just want Cloud's little trek to be over as son as possible, he would much rather be fighting something.
"A good fight kinda makes ya think," he says to himself. "I don't know what the hell he thinks he's doin, but I bet it ain't planned out right."
Cloud said he would be back in less than a day, so Barret was hopeful that he didn't have to keep this force march up for long. As he thinks of all the things that can go wrong, only two seemed to be able to slow Cloud enough to affect the success of whatever mission he's on. The first may be improbable, but not impossible. The second could ruin everything.
There were a number of people, especially in Kalm, who did not take the loss of mako energy very well. "Life was so convenient" they would say. Immediately following the destruction of Shinra, the popular opinion of AVALANCHE was unbelievably low. During the first month after the last mako reactor shut down, there must have been at least three death threats against every member a week, and about half of that number in actual attempts at their lives. None of them were any real threat, but it was the overall idea that Cloud and the rest may have made the world less of a good place to live that made them worry. A quick speech from Barret would ease their doubts, though. The search for alternative sources of energy is never easy, especially after getting used to something as cheap as mako.
Barret continuously searches the horizon and mountain tops for any sign of angry mob or sniper. In the distance, he spots a small moving object barely detectable in the evening light. Barret squints to make out what the object could be. As it comes more into focus, it becomes clear that it is a person, a small one at that. Gun now ready, Barret watches carefully, trying to recognize the figure. He succeeds. The second thing that could go wrong just did.
"Of all the times for that girl to show her face, why now?" Barret grumbles as he recognizes the thin shadow as Yuffie. The three of them would go "Materia Hunting" for lack of better thing to do, and the promise of a cut at the profits. That is the main reason Cloud kept the Nail Bat, to piss off Yuffie when she came asking for help growing her latest batch of Restore, Lightning, or whatever Witui needed a fresh supply of (Yuffie herself always seemed to have a short supply of Sense). Given Cloud's current mental state and the effects Yuffie usually has on everyone (extreme annoyance), the chances of a major clash of superego verses patients seems inevitable. Barret has to admit that this will not be just another run to the corner tavern.
Cloud, however, is completely oblivious the approaching natural disaster. His concentration is solely on getting to his destination and doing what countless battles should have. For most of his life, violence was the only way Cloud knew how to get things done, to get attention, to tell his side of a story, to prove his worth to the team; it only made sense that he would get a job as a soldier. And what did that career revolve around? A simple weapon, a sword. The metal is no state of the art alloy, nor the design for that matter, it's just huge. Through countless battles, it never got a dent. But that is all irrelevant now. It will all be over soon.
He can't explain why he suddenly wanted to end his career as a fighter. Maybe it's his conscience starting to weigh him down, everybody's favorite penguin Master Tornsbury knows that almost too well for Cloud's own good. Maybe this is his body's way of saying its time to retire. But it his mental health that is failing him, he's still in good physical condition (when sober).
Things were looking up, but the search for the promised land has been doomed before it even began. First there comes the obvious problem of finding a place that may not even exist. Secondly, recent adventures have shown that what was once thought of as reliable mapping technology missed a good amount of small, unpopulated islands such as Chocobo Island in the Northeast and Gremlin Island in the South, so they are not much help. Finally, there comes the problem of manpower. Nobody in their right mind would leave whatever stead pay check they could manage to blindly search for a legend. The days of the professional explorer are over and have been for years actually. However, again, none of this really matters anymore. Cloud is going to erase every aspect of his fighting career, starting with the swords that started, supported, and almost ended it all.
Barret, falling even farther behind despite his near valiant effort, runs out of options. He is going to end this chain of events before they get out of hand. Raising his gun arm, he peers cautiously at the mountainside. Never very good as a sniper, always reaching for quantity not quality, Barret knows what risk he taking. Aiming to stop the young ninja without killing her (though not many people would miss her) will not be easy. Taking a shot this close without giving away his position will be nearly impossible. And doing it all with this damn mosquito on his nose is driving him insane!
Time was short, he had to do something. He let a single bullet fire from his gun-arm. The young nija fell. He squashes the bug, nearly giving himself a bloody nose in the process.
"Uh, sir... We may have a situation here." A man talks into a two-way radio.
"What do you have Rockhound?" The noisy transmitter replies.
"I'm not quite sure yet, but it seems AVALANCHE may be on the move again."
Cloud marches on, the noise inside his head drowning out anything not directly concerning him. This was turning out not to be as hard as Barret had originally feared. With a big sigh, he decided that he should check on the girl, not wanting to get her father, the head honcho of Witui angrier than need be. Now noticing that Cloud wouldn't notice a tornado directly over his head, Barret drops the cautious act and reverts to his normal, heavy-footed walking style. Approaching the site where Yuffie went down, he begins to hear an all too familiar whine. Yup, he mutters under his breath, she's alive.
"What are you doing?" she asks, clearly angry. "You trying to hit me?"
"If I wuz tryin' to hit ya', don't ya' think I would have?" Barret shoots back, matching her anger.
"You couldn't stop me if you tried." She sneers directly into the face of Barret.
"Jus' what the hell you think you doin' anyway? You have any idea how messed up that boy is right now?"
"Cool, if he's going somewhere, we can help him!" The girl trots off in Cloud's direction.
"I ain't say that.....HEY!!!!" The large man runs after her, to no avail. The surprisingly thin Yuffie, obviously not affected by the near hit from Barret's gun, is easily the fastest member of this small group.
Barret, who never prided himself as fleet of foot, quickly finds it impossible to stop the girl. Another shot is out of the question, it now seems that whatever mission Cloud put himself on, he and Yuffie are now a part of it.
"Any indication on where they're heading?" The communicator screeches to life.
"None yet, sir. Three of them have just passed the checkpoint here."
"Uhh, repeat you possition Rockhound..."
"Mountain path East of Kalm"
"Near Kalm? Permission granted to leave post, precede them. Make it an easy trip. The Boss wants an encounter between them and a new group that has already passed through the swamp."
"Who? I heard nothing about a group getting into the swamp."
"Copy that elsewhere, there's only two of them so they may have slipped through unnoticed. All I can tell you is that the Boss seems to be taking a particular interest in this. You have your orders, keep up the good work soldier."
"Thank you Cap'n. Singing off." Rockhound clip the radio to his belt, collapses the tripod binoculars, and leaves his post.